But the country we are dealing with has a history which extends back for hundreds of years before the names of Gaul or France were heard of. This region has in all ages formed a centre for the reception of the culture and arts of the various nations of the Mediterranean, and from which these have again been radiated to the remoter countries of the West. Its reminiscences thus carry us back to the dawn of history, some three thousand years ago, when we find the coast in the hands of the Phœnician navigators, by whose commercial and naval activity it could not fail to be greatly influenced. To the Phœnicians succeeded the Greeks, who colonised the country, and infused into it that spirit of Grecian culture and art of which it was long the home. The Romans next took possession of the land, and, under their dominion, it became a favourite province, and was lavishly enriched with the productions of the magnificent architecture of the Empire.
Amidst the horrors of the barbarian irruptions which followed the fall of the Empire, this fortunate province succeeded in maintaining some relics of Roman civilisation; and when the dawn began to appear after the terrible night of the Dark Ages, it was amongst the first to show signs of life and revival. In the South, song and literature, encouraged by contact with the Saracens of Spain, sprang up and flourished ere, in the North, the struggle for existence had produced a settled condition in the land. Here too the Christian Church took an early and firm hold, and has left interesting traces of its sacred edifices of very early date. It was here also that the primitive monastic societies of the West preserved the learning and enlightenment whereby the nations were subsequently revived and illumined. During the Middle Ages we shall likewise find that this remarkable region still retained its distinctive attitude as a centre of artistic and commercial energy between the East and the West. It occupied in this respect, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a very remarkable position, and was at that time the scene of action of some of the chief political and religious movements in the West of Europe.
While connected as a fief with the “Holy Roman Empire,” it was also in close proximity to the growing power of France on the north, and to Spain and Italy on the south. For a time indeed it was under the suzerainty of Aragon, and was thus brought into contact with the science and arts of the Moors in Spain. From Italy again it received an impulse from the energy of the growing Republics of that country; while it also felt only too terribly and effectively the sway and power of the Pope. At the same time it became the chief entrepôt of the growing traffic from the East, and the highway by which the artistic and other products of the Levant were dispersed through France and the North of Europe.
The importance of this region was at that period immense, but in course of time it gradually diminished, until at length the tide of influence became reversed. The increasing power of France overshadowed the South, and the policy and arts of the North gradually encroached upon and finally absorbed it.
Having to investigate the architecture of a region so rich in historic and artistic records, it may be well, before considering its monuments in detail, to glance a little more fully at the historic conditions under which the various styles we shall meet with were produced and developed. We shall thus be the better able to understand and appreciate their place and significance in connection with the growth of the architecture.
II.
THE history of the littoral of the Mediterranean goes back to the earliest dawn of maritime enterprise.
The coast was visited by the Phœnicians, those first and adventurous merchants and navigators of the Levant, who pushed their commerce even as far as the shores of distant Britain. Carthage was one of the Tyrian Colonies, and so also was Cadiz, founded about 1100 B.C.