74 ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE. Gelnhausen is supposed to have been commenced some- what later. They are fine specimens of the transition style ; as are also the cathedrals of Naumberg and Bamberg, the latter of which is very handsome. St. Stephen's at Vienna, with its beautiful spire, marking the transition from the square tower to the tapering pinnacle, is one of the largest of German churches of the pointed style. In North Germany, where it was difficult to obtain stone, buildings similar to those mentioned above were constructed of brick. The Romanesque style was adopted in the early part of the twelfth century — the flat roofs and columns of the basilicas being quickly superseded by piers and vaults. The Romanesque buildings of Italy of the eleventh and twelfth centuries differ greatly from those of Germany. In many of them we see a combination of the early Christian basilica with a simple system of vaulting. One of the best specimens is the basilica of San Miniato, near Florence, begun in 1013. It has three aisles, but no tran- septs, and is divided into three longitudinal portions by clustered piers,* supporting two large arches, which span the nave and aisles. These arches may be looked upon as a crude effort at vaulting the central portion of the church, and the clustered piers show the working of the influence to which later on the Gothic system of arches receding behind one another was due. The cathedral of Pisa, commenced fifty years after the church of San Miniato, is considered as typical of the Italian transitional Romanesque style. It has more Gothic
- A clustered pier is one in which several small columns are
joined together, each with a base, shaft, and capital.
