La Trinite at Angers, both combining pointed arches with
domed vaulting, the gradual development of the southern branch of French
Romanesque architecture can be very clearly studied.

In many of the noble churches and cathedrals of Northern France and
elsewhere the Romanesque may justly be said to have melted into the
Gothic style, some of them combining as they do the most beautiful
features of both. To the cost of their erection ecclesiastics and laymen
alike contributed with eager zeal, and amongst the architects and
craftsmen employed on them, class and professional rivalry were merged
in one common enthusiasm to promote the glory of God, all desire for
individual distinction being merged in an unselfish ambition to aid in
producing a building worthy of His worship.

In Normandy was inaugurated the phase of Romanesque architecture which
was to develop on such noble lines in England, the chief distinctions of
which are the massiveness of the walls and pillars, the great length of
the nave, the richness of the decoration alike of the shafts and
capitals of the columns and of the round-headed arches they uphold. Very
notable examples are the Abbaye aux Hommes, the Abbaye aux Dames, and
the Church of S. Nicholas, all at Caen, the first with circular arched
vaulting and western towers ending in spires, the second with a Gothic
roof of intersecting pointed arches, the third with three apses, each
with a steeply pitched roof, a porch with three arcades at the western
end, and a low gabled tower rising from the point of intersection of the
nave and transepts, the three buildings illustrating well the transition
from the simple basilica to the complex Gothic structure. With them may
be named the Abbey of Jumieges, of which unfortunately but a few relics
remain, which had beautiful clustered piers alternating with single
columns upholding semicircular lateral arches, a flat roofed nave, and
vaulted aisles.

Other fine Romanesque churches of Northern France, all of which differ
somewhat in general appearance from those of Normandy, are the
Cathedrals of Noyon and Soissons, the church of S. Pierre at Lisieux,
all of which combine pointed with semicircular arches, and above all
the Cathedral of Le Mans, which has a very characteristic Romanesque
nave flanked by round-headed arches and roofed over with an equally
characteristic groined Gothic vault, whilst the choir, added in the
early 13th century, is encircled by a beautiful