Editing Romanesque architecture (section)

===Church and cathedral façades and external decoration===
Romanesque church façades, generally to the west end of the building, are usually symmetrical, have a large central portal made significant by its mouldings or porch, and an arrangement of arched-topped windows. In Italy there is often a single central ocular or wheel window.<ref name=BF309/> The common decorative feature is arcading.<ref name=BF/>

Smaller churches often have a single tower that is usually placed to the western end in France or England, either centrally or to one side, while larger churches and cathedrals often have two.

In France, [[Abbaye-aux-Hommes|Saint-Étienne, Caen]], presents the model of a large French Romanesque façade. It is a symmetrical arrangement of nave flanked by two tall towers each with two buttresses of low flat profile that divide the façade into three vertical units. The lowest stage is marked by large doors, each set within an arch in each of the three vertical sections. The wider central section has two tiers of three identical windows, while in the outer sections there are two tiers of single windows, giving emphasis to the mass of the towers. The towers rise above the façade through three further tiers, the lowest of tall blind arcading, the next of arcading pierced by two narrow windows and the third of two large windows, divided into two lights by a colonnette.<ref name=NP/>

This façade can be seen as the foundation for many other buildings, including both French and English Gothic churches. While the form is typical of northern France, its various components were common to many Romanesque churches of the period across Europe. Similar façades are found in Portugal. In England, [[Southwell Cathedral]] has maintained this form, despite the insertion of a huge Gothic window between the towers. [[Lincoln Cathedral|Lincoln]] and [[Durham Cathedral|Durham]] must once have looked like this. In Germany, [[Limburg Cathedral]] has a rich variety of openings and arcades in horizontal storeys of varying heights.

The churches of [[San Zeno Maggiore, Verona]], and [[San Michele, Pavia]], present two types of façade that are typical of Italian Romanesque, that which reveals the architectural form of the building, and that which screens it. At San Zeno, the components of nave and aisles are made clear by the vertical shafts that rise to the level of the central gable and by the varying roof levels. At [[San Miniato al Monte]] the definition of the architectural parts is made even clearer by the [[polychrome]] marble, a feature of many Italian medieval façades, particularly in Tuscany.
At San Michele the vertical definition is present as at San Zeno, but the rooflines are screened behind a single large gable decorated with stepped arcading. At [[Santa Maria della Pieve]], [[Arezzo]], this screening is carried even further, as the roofline is horizontal and the arcading rises in many different levels while the colonettes that support them have a great diversity of decoration.<ref name=HG/><ref name=RH/>

In the [[Rhineland]] and Netherlands the Carolingian form of west end known as the [[westwerk]] prevailed. Towers and apse of the western end are often incorporated into a multi-storey structure that bears little structural or visual relationship to the building behind it. These westwerks take a great variety of forms as may be seen at [[Maria Laach Abbey]], [[Collegiate Church of Saint Gertrude, Nivelles|St Gertrude, Nivelles]], and [[Basilica of Saint Servatius|St Serviatius]], Maastricht.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="210" caption="Façades">
File:Coimbra BW 2018-10-06 14-33-51 stitch.jpg|The [[Old Cathedral of Coimbra]], Portugal, is fortress-like and battlemented. The two central openings are deeply recessed.
File:Arles kirche st trophime fassade sky.JPG|[[Church of St. Trophime]], [[Arles]], France. The ornamentation is focused on the porch and the carved Christ in Majesty on the tympanum, typical of French cathedrals.
File:Verona Zeno-cropped.JPG|alt=Church of San Zeno, Verona, Italy, The façade is neatly divided vertically and horizontally. The central wheel window and small porch with columns resting on crouching lions is typical of Italy.|Church of [[San Zeno, Verona]], Italy. The façade is neatly divided vertically and horizontally. The central [[rose window|wheel window]] and small porch with columns resting on crouching lions is typical of Italy.
File:Duomo di Pisa Front Facade 2009.jpg|[[Pisa Cathedral]], Italy. The entire building is faced with marble striped in white and grey. On the façade this pattern is overlaid with architectonic decoration of blind arcading below tiers of dwarf galleries. The three portals became increasingly common.
File:San Michele Maggiore, Pavia, veduta laterale della facciata.jpg|[[San Michele Maggiore, Pavia|San Michele Maggiore]], [[Pavia]], The façade has the form of a screen, higher than the central nave, with a blind arcade below its roofline. It is divided into three bays by [[compound pier]]s, has a variety of window openings, and horizontal bands of sculptural decoration. 
File:Empoli, collegiata, facciata del 1093 (parte bassa) e del 1736 (parte alta) 02.jpg|The [[Collegiate Church]], [[Empoli]], Italy, represents a screen façade. The polychrome marble decoration divides the façade into zones while giving little indication of the architectural form behind it.
File:Angouleme cathedral StPierre ac.JPG|[[Angoulême Cathedral]], France. The façade here, richly decorated with architectonic and sculptural forms, has much in common with that at Empoli in that it screens the form of the building behind it.
</gallery>

<gallery mode="packed" caption="Façades with towers" heights="210">
File:Mairie de caen 030 crop.JPG|Saint-Étienne, [[Abbaye aux Hommes]], Caen, France, 11th century, with its tall towers, three portals and neat definition of architectural forms became a model for the façades of many later cathedrals across Europe. <small>14th-century spires</small>
File:St. Mary's Minster , West End - geograph.org.uk - 948257.jpg|[[Southwell Cathedral]], England, 1120, follows the Norman model with pyramidal spires as were probably at Saint-Étienne. <small>The Perpendicular window and battlement are late Gothic.</small>
File:Se de Lisboa Frente adj sky.JPG|[[Lisbon Cathedral]], Portugal, 1147, has a similar form to the Old Cathedral of Coimbra <small>above</small> with the addition of two sturdy bell towers in the Norman manner and a wheel window.
File:Limburg Cathedral, West facade 20140917 1.jpg|[[Limburg Cathedral]], Germany. The façade, {{Circa|1200}}, with polychrome plaster, follows the paired-tower model found at several [[Rhineland]] churches. The rose window has [[plate tracery]] and the spires are Rhenish helms.
File:Maria Laach 02.jpg|The [[westwork]] of the [[Maria Laach Abbey]], Germany, 12th century, (porch 1225) is typical of Germany, a form that dates to [[Carolingian architecture]] with grouped towers of different plans and both "candle-snuffer" and Rhenish helm spires.
File:Parma Dom Fassade4 adjusted.JPG|[[Parma Cathedral]], Italy, 1178, has a screen façade ornamented with galleries. At the centre is an open porch surmounted by a ceremonial balcony. The tower, (Gothic 1284) is a separate structure as usual in Italy.
</gallery>