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53-672: Scottish baronial or Scots baronial is an architectural style of 19th-century Gothic Revival which revived the forms and ornaments of historical architecture of Scotland in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period . Reminiscent of Scottish castles , buildings in the Scots baronial style are characterised by elaborate rooflines embellished with conical roofs , tourelles , and battlements with machicolations , often with an asymmetric plan. Popular during

106-542: A Scottish national identity during the 19th century, and some of the most emblematic country residences of 19th-century Scotland were built in this style, including Queen Victoria 's Balmoral Castle and Walter Scott 's Abbotsford , while in urban settings Cockburn Street, Edinburgh was built wholly in baronial style. Baronial style buildings were typically of stone, whether ashlar or masonry . Following Robert William Billings 's Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland , architectural historians identified

159-419: A "protection against chaos". The concept of style was foreign to architects until the 18th century. Prior to the era of Enlightenment , the architectural form was mostly considered timeless, either as a divine revelation or an absolute truth derived from the laws of nature, and a great architect was the one who understood this "language". The new interpretation of history declared each historical period to be

212-404: A historical epoch ( Renaissance style ), geographical location ( Italian Villa style ), or an earlier architectural style ( Neo-Gothic style ), and are influenced by the corresponding broader artistic style and the "general human condition". Heinrich Wölfflin even declared an analogy between a building and a costume : an "architectural style reflects the attitude and the movement of people in

265-502: A means of exercising control over the conquered areas. These tower houses were typically not intended to be used in any major military actions. For this purpose, the crusaders relied on a number of larger order castles . A number of such tower houses still exist, well-preserved examples include Purtse , Vao and Kiiu castles in Estonia . One theory suggests that private tower-like structures proliferate in areas where central authority

318-522: A number of styles which have acquired other names. Architectural styles often spread to other places, so that the style at its source continues to develop in new ways while other countries follow with their own twist. For instance, Renaissance ideas emerged in Italy around 1425 and spread to all of Europe over the next 200 years, with the French, German, English, and Spanish Renaissances showing recognisably

371-630: A number of these by the end of the Middle Ages, but few now remain, notably two towers in Bologna , twenty towers in Pavia and fourteen secular towers in the small city of San Gimignano in Tuscany now the best group to survive. Scotland has many fine examples of medieval tower houses, including Drum Castle , Craigievar Castle and Castle Fraser , and in the unstable Scottish Marches along

424-767: A pink sandstone similar to Belfast Castle . Castle Oliver had all the classic features of the style, including battlements, porte-cochère , crow-stepped gables , numerous turrets, arrow slits , spiral stone staircases, and conical roofs. This form of architecture was popular in the dominions of the British Empire. In New Zealand it was advocated by the architect Robert Lawson , who designed frequently in this style, most notably at Larnach Castle in Dunedin. Other examples in New Zealand include works by Francis Petre . In Canada, Craigdarroch Castle , British Columbia,

477-664: A place in history that is independent of its author. The subject of study no longer was the ideas that Borromini borrowed from Maderno who in turn learned from Michelangelo , instead the questions now were about the continuity and changes observed when the architecture transitioned from Renaissance to Baroque . Semper, Wölfflin, and Frankl, and later Ackerman, had backgrounds in the history of architecture, and like many other terms for period styles, "Romanesque" and "Gothic" were initially coined to describe architectural styles, where major changes between styles can be clearer and more easy to define, not least because style in architecture

530-649: A single family, some by several families together or by entire village communities. Most notable in the New World might be considered a focal element of the Mesa Verde Anasazi ruin in Colorado , United States. There is a prominent structure at that site which is called the "tower house" and has the general appearance characteristics of its counterparts in Britain and Ireland. This four-story building

583-414: A stage of growth for the humanity (cf. Johann Gottfried Herder 's Volksgeist that much later developed into Zeitgeist ). This approach allowed to classify architecture of each age as an equally valid approach, "style" (the use of the word in this sense became established by the mid-18th century). Style has been subject of an extensive debate since at least the 19th century. Many architects argue that

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636-405: Is a building; Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture" ( Nikolaus Pevsner , 1943). Nonetheless, the traditional and popular approach to the architectural history is through chronology of styles, with changes reflecting the evolution of materials, economics, fashions, and beliefs. Works of architecture are unlikely to be preserved for their aesthetic value alone; with practical re-purposing,

689-465: Is a depressing affair indeed". According to James Elkins "In the later 20th century criticisms of style were aimed at further reducing the Hegelian elements of the concept while retaining it in a form that could be more easily controlled". In the middle of the 19th century, multiple aesthetic and social factors forced architects to design the new buildings using a selection of styles patterned after

742-547: Is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages , especially in mountainous or limited access areas, to command and defend strategic points with reduced forces. At the same time, they were also used as an aristocrat 's residence, around which a castle town was often constructed. After their initial appearance in Ireland, Scotland,

795-469: Is a superb example dating from the 1880s. Important for the dissemination of the style was Robert Billings 's (1813–1874) four-volume work Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland (1848–1852). It was applied to many relatively modest dwellings by architects such as William Burn (1789–1870), David Bryce (1803–76), Edward Blore (1787–1879), Edward Calvert (c. 1847–1914) and Robert Stodart Lorimer (1864–1929) and in urban contexts, including

848-414: Is easier to replicate by following a set of rules than style in figurative art such as painting. Terms originated to describe architectural periods were often subsequently applied to other areas of the visual arts, and then more widely still to music, literature and the general culture. In architecture stylistic change often follows, and is made possible by, the discovery of new techniques or materials, from

901-561: Is revived, it is different. The Spanish mission style was revived 100 years later as the Mission Revival , and that soon evolved into the Spanish Colonial Revival . Early writing on the subjects of architectural history, since the works of Vitruvius in the 1st century B.C. , treated architecture as a patrimony that was passed on to the next generation of architects by their forefathers. Giorgio Vasari in

954-828: Is weak, leading to a need for a status symbol incorporating private defences against small-scale attacks. For example, the North Caucasus was a country where fierce competition over limited natural resources led to chronic feuding between neighbours. There are numerous examples of tower houses in Svanetia , Chechnya and Ingushetia , where a clan-like social structure survived well into the 20th century. Numerous examples of Svan tower houses are found in Chazhashi and Ushguli . See Vainakh tower architecture for details. The Yemeni city of Shibam has hundreds of tower houses. Similarly, hundreds of Tibetan tower houses dot

1007-535: The Basque Country , some of them dating to the 8th century. They were mainly used as noble residences and were able to provide shelter against enemies, starting with the Muslims and later Aragón and Castile . Due to complex legal charters, few had boroughs attached to them, thus they are usually found standing alone in some strategic spot like a crossroad, rather than on a height. During the petty wars among

1060-525: The County of Flanders in the 16th century and was abandoned by about 1660. The style kept many of the features of the high-rising medieval Gothic castles and introduced Renaissance features. The high and relatively thin-walled medieval fortifications had been made obsolete by gunpowder weapons but were associated with chivalry and landed nobility. High roofs, towers and turrets were kept for status reasons. Renaissance elements were introduced. This concerned mainly

1113-535: The Frisian lands , Northern Spain and England during the High Middle Ages , tower houses were also built in other parts of western Europe, especially in parts of France and Italy. In Italian medieval communes , urban palazzi with a very tall tower were increasingly built by the local highly competitive patrician families as power centres during times of internal strife. Most north Italian cities had

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1166-629: The 16th century shifted the narrative to biographies of the great artists in his " Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects ". Constructing schemes of the period styles of historic art and architecture was a major concern of 19th century scholars in the new and initially mostly German-speaking field of art history . Important writers on the broad theory of style including Carl Friedrich von Rumohr , Gottfried Semper , and Alois Riegl in his Stilfragen of 1893, with Heinrich Wölfflin and Paul Frankl continued

1219-587: The Balkans since the Middle Ages . They became very widespread in the 17th century, built by both Christians and Muslims in a period of decline of Ottoman authority and insecurity. The tower house served the purpose of protecting the extended family. In the Baltic states , the Teutonic Order and other crusaders erected fortified tower houses in the Middle Ages, locally known as "vassal castles", as

1272-800: The Basque nobles from 1379 to 1456, the upper floors (with defensive capacity) of most of them were demolished. Few have survived unscathed to the present day. Since then they have been used only as residences by their traditional noble owners ( Saint Ignatius of Loyola was born in one of them, which stands to this day) or converted into farmhouses. To the west of the Basque Country, in Cantabria and Asturias similar tower houses are found. Furthest west in Spain , in Galicia , medieval tower houses are in

1325-507: The British Empire. The Scottish National War Memorial was the last significant monument of the baronial style, built 1920 in Edinburgh Castle after World War I . The Scottish baronial style is also called Scotch baronial, Scots baronial or just baronial style. The name was invented in the 19th century and may come from Robert William Billings's book Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland , published in 1852. Before,

1378-470: The Gothic rib vault to modern metal and reinforced concrete construction. A major area of debate in both art history and archaeology has been the extent to which stylistic change in other fields like painting or pottery is also a response to new technical possibilities, or has its own impetus to develop (the kunstwollen of Riegl), or changes in response to social and economic factors affecting patronage and

1431-957: The Scots baronial style was "a Caledonian reading of the gothic". Some of the earliest evidence of a revival in Gothic architecture is from Scotland. Inveraray Castle , built starting from 1746 with design input from William Adam , incorporates turrets. These were largely conventional Palladian style houses that incorporated some external features of the Scots baronial style. William Adam's son's, Robert and James continued their father's approach, with houses such as Mellerstain and Wedderburn in Berwickshire and Seton House in East Lothian, but most clearly at Culzean Castle , Ayrshire, remodelled by Robert from 1777. Large windows of plate glass are not uncommon. Bay windows often have their individual roofs adorned by pinnacles and crenulations. Porches , porticos and porte-cocheres , are often given

1484-651: The Scottish Renaissance style finally gave way to the grander English forms associated with Inigo Jones in the later part of the seventeenth century. European architecture of the 19th century was dominated by revivals of various historic styles. This current took off in the middle of the 18th century with the Gothic Revival in Britain. The Gothic Revival in architecture has been seen as an expression of romanticism and according to Alvin Jackson ,

1537-520: The architecture often had little in common with tower houses, which retained their defensive functions and were deficient with respect to 19th-century ideas of comfort. The revival often adapted the style to the needs and technical abilities of a later time. In Ireland, a young English architect of the York School of Architecture, George Fowler Jones , designed Castle Oliver , a 110-room mansion of about 29,000 sq ft (2,700 m), built in

1590-462: The border between England and Scotland the peel tower was the typical residence of the wealthy, with others being built by the government. In 17th century Scotland these castles became the pleasure retreats of the upper classes. While able to adopt a military nature, they were furnished for comfort and social interaction. Tower houses are commonly found in northern Spain, especially in Navarre and

1643-402: The builder. The concept of architectural style is studied in the architectural history as one of the approaches ("style and period") that are used to organize the history of architecture (Leach lists five other approaches as "biography, geography and culture, type, technique, theme and analogy"). Style provides an additional relationship between otherwise disparate buildings, thus serving as

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1696-559: The building of Cockburn Street in Edinburgh (from the 1850s) as well as the National Wallace Monument at Stirling (1859–1869). Dall House (1855) and Helen's Tower (1848) have square-corbelled-on-round towers or turrets. The rebuilding of Balmoral Castle as a baronial palace and its adoption as a royal retreat from 1855 to 1858 by Queen Victoria confirmed the popularity of the style. This architectural style

1749-706: The castle treatment. An imitation portcullis on the larger houses would occasionally be suspended above a front door, flanked by heraldic beasts and other medieval architectural motifs. Important for the adoption of the style in the early nineteenth century was Abbotsford House , the residence of the novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott . Rebuilt for him from 1816, it became a model for the Scottish baronial Revival style. Common features borrowed from 16th- and 17th-century houses included battlemented gateways, crow-stepped gables , spiral stairs, pointed turrets and machicolations . Orchardton Castle near Auchencairn, Scotland

1802-482: The conditions of the artist, as current thinking tends to emphasize, using less rigid versions of Marxist art history. Although style was well-established as a central component of art historical analysis, seeing it as the over-riding factor in art history had fallen out of fashion by World War II, as other ways of looking at art were developing, and a reaction against the emphasis on style developing; for Svetlana Alpers , "the normal invocation of style in art history

1855-548: The cylinder of their main bodies are particular the Scottish baronial style. They can be seen at Claypotts , Monea , Colliston , Thirlestane , Auchans , Balvenie , and Fiddes . Such castles or tower houses are typically built on asymmetric plans. Often this is a Z-plan as at Claypotts Castle (1569–1588), or on an L-plan as at Colliston. Roof lines are uneven and irregular. The Scottish baronial style coexisted even in Scotland with Northern Renaissance architecture, which

1908-483: The debate into the 20th century. Paul Jacobsthal and Josef Strzygowski are among the art historians who followed Riegl in proposing grand schemes tracing the transmission of elements of styles across great ranges in time and space. This type of art history is also known as formalism , or the study of forms or shapes in art. Wölfflin declared the goal of formalism as German : Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegriffe , "art history without names", where an architect's work has

1961-463: The empire at Vorontsov Palace near the city of Yalta, Crimea. The popularity of the baronial style peaked towards the end of the nineteenth century, and the building of large houses declined in importance in the twentieth century. The baronial style continued to influence the construction of some estate houses, including Skibo Castle , which was rebuilt from 1899 to 1903 for industrialist Andrew Carnegie by Ross and Macbeth. Isolated examples included

2014-839: The fashion for Romanticism and the Picturesque , Scots baronial architecture was equivalent to the Jacobethan Revival of 19th-century England , and likewise revived the Late Gothic appearance of the fortified domestic architecture of the elites in the Late Middle Ages and the architecture of the Jacobean era . Among architects of the Scots baronial style in the Victorian era were William Burn and David Bryce . Romanticism in Scotland coincided with

2067-600: The historical ones (working "in every style or none"), and style definition became a practical matter. The choice of an appropriate style was subject of elaborate discussions; for example, the Cambridge Camden Society had argued that the churches in the new British colonies should be built in the Norman style , so that the local architects and builders can go through the paces repeating the architectural history of England. Tower house A tower house

2120-454: The houses designed by Basil Spence , Broughton Place (1936) and Gribloch (1937–1939), which combined modern and baronial elements. The 20th-century Scottish baronial castles have the reputation of architectural follies . Among most patrons and architects the style became disfavoured along with the Gothic revival style during the early years of the 20th century. Architectural style Architectural styles are frequently associated with

2173-494: The notion of "style" cannot adequately describe the contemporary architecture, is obsolete and ridden with historicism . In their opinion, by concentrating on the appearance of the building, style classification misses the hidden from view ideas that architects had put into the form. Studying history of architecture without reliance on styles usually relies on a " canon " of important architects and buildings. The lesser objects in this approach do not deserve attention: "A bicycle shed

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2226-588: The origin of many Modern Age pazos , noble residences as well as strongholds. Large numbers of tower houses can be found across Portugal, particularly in the north of the country. By the 15th century they had lost their military or residential uses, and were often either expanded into larger manors or converted into hunting lodges for the aristocracy. A feature peculiar to Germany is the few preserved tower houses of Ratisbon , reminiscent of those in San Gimignano. Distinctive tower houses were built in

2279-552: The original intent of the original architect, sometimes his very identity, can be forgotten, and the building style becomes "an indispensable historical tool". Styles emerge from the history of a society. At any time several styles may be fashionable, and when a style changes it usually does so gradually, as architects learn and adapt to new ideas. The new style is sometimes only a rebellion against an existing style, such as postmodern architecture (meaning "after modernism"), which in 21st century has found its own language and split into

2332-423: The period concerned. The 21st century construction uses a multitude of styles that are sometimes lumped together as a " contemporary architecture " based on the common trait of extreme reliance on computer-aided architectural design (cf. Parametricism ). Folk architecture (also "vernacular architecture") is not a style, but an application of local customs to small-scale construction without clear identity of

2385-666: The same style, but with unique characteristics. An architectural style may also spread through colonialism , either by foreign colonies learning from their home country, or by settlers moving to a new land. One example is the Spanish missions in California , brought by Spanish priests in the late 18th century and built in a unique style . After an architectural style has gone out of fashion, revivals and re-interpretations may occur. For instance, classicism has been revived many times and found new life as neoclassicism . Each time it

2438-622: The so-called Tribal Corridor in Western Sichuan , some 50 metres high with as many as 13 star-like points, and the oldest are thought to be 1,200 years old. They appear to have been created as much for prestige among village families as for defence. Kaiping and some other towns in South China retain a plethora of watchtowers, or diaolous . Although they were built mainly as protection against forays by bandits, many of them also served as living quarters. Some of them were built by

2491-556: The style does not seem to have had a name. The buildings produced by the Scottish baronial revival by far outnumber those of the original Scottish "baronial" castles of the Early Modern Period. Scottish baronial style drew upon the buildings of the Scottish Renaissance . The style of elite residences built by barons in Scotland developed under the influence of French architecture and the architecture of

2544-462: The stylistic features characteristic of the baronial castles built from the latter 16th century as Scots baronial style, which as a revived idiom architects continued to employ up until 1930s. Scottish baronial was core influence on Charles Rennie Mackintosh 's Modern Style architecture. The style was considered a British national idiom emblematic of Scotland, and was widely used for public buildings, country houses, residences and follies throughout

2597-455: The windows that became bigger, had straight lintels or round bows and typically lacked mullions. The style drew on tower houses and peel towers , retaining many of their external features. French Renaissance also kept the steep roofs of medieval castles as can be seen for example at Azay-le-Rideau (1518), and the original Scottish baronial style might have been influenced by French masons brought to Scotland to work on royal palaces. The style

2650-640: Was built for Robert Dunsmuir , a Scottish coal baron, in 1890. In Toronto, E. J. Lennox designed Casa Loma in the Gothic Revival style for Sir Henry Pellatt , a prominent Canadian financier and industrialist. The mansion has battlements and towers, along with modern plumbing and other conveniences. Another Canadian example is the Banff Springs Hotel in the Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. The style can also be seen outside

2703-515: Was often employed for public buildings, such as Aberdeen Grammar School (about 1860). However, it was by no means confined to Scotland and is a fusion of the Gothic revival castle architecture first employed by Horace Walpole for Strawberry Hill and the ancient Scottish defensive tower houses . In the 19th century it became fashionable for private houses to be built with small turrets. Such buildings were dubbed "in Scottish baronial style". In fact

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2756-689: Was preferred by the wealthier clients. William Wallace 's work at the North Range of Linlithgow Palace (1618–1622) and at Heriot's Hospital (1628–1633) are examples of a contemporaneous Scottish Renaissance architecture. Wallace worked for the Countess of Home at Moray House on Edinburgh's Canongate , an Anglo-Scottish client who employed the English master mason Nicholas Stone at her London house in Aldersgate. The baronial style as well as

2809-531: Was quite limited in scope: a style for lesser Scottish landlords. The walls usually are rubble work and only quoins, window dressings and copings are in ashlar. Sculpted ornaments are sparsely used. In most cases the windows lack pediments. The style often uses corbelled turrets sometimes called tourelles, bartizans or pepperpot turrets. The corbels supporting the turret typically are roll-moulded. Their roofs were conical. Gables are often crow-stepped. Round towers supporting square garret chambers corbelled out over

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