In Romanesque churches the beautiful colonnaded narthex of the early Christian basilica is replaced in Northern and occasionally in Southern Italy by a projecting, and elsewhere by a simple, porch; but to make up for the loss of what was a very effective feature, the whole of the western façade, including the recessed doorway giving access to the nave, is generally most richly decorated with sculpture and carving, figures in niches, grotesque animal forms of symbolic meaning, with floral and geometrical designs of great variety and beauty adorning every portion.
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On either side of the west front of many Romanesque buildings, more rarely also from the point of junction of the transepts and nave, rise lofty square or octagonal towers, the earlier with flat, the later with more or less steeply pitched roofs, that gradually developed into the tapering spires so characteristic of the Gothic style. Occasionally the eastern apse is flanked by a turret or small tower, and in some cases, chiefly in Italy, a detached and lofty tower known as a Campanile or Bell Tower—though it only rarely contains bells, being sometimes merely a secular monument—rises close to the church or at a little distance from it, but connected with it by a cloister.
In S. Ambrogio, Milan, begun in the 9th and completed in the 12th century, the gradual change from the early Christian to the Romanesque style as developed in Italy can be studied. It has a nave of basilican type, a narthex surmounted by a gallery, a pediment-like gable at the western end, an octagonal cupola roofing over the eastern apse, with a circle of windows flooding the choir with light, a triforium or arcaded storey above the aisles, and most characteristic of all, an open external arcaded gallery, admitting air and light beneath the roof of the apse, such as was to become so effective a decorative feature of later buildings, and in some cases to be extended along the aisles and above the chief entrance.
S. Michele, Pavia, is a typical and very beautiful example of the Romanesque style of the twelfth century, specially noteworthy features being its cruciform plan, its two-storied aisles, and its external gallery with clustered pilasters; and the contemporary S. Zeno, Verona, though it has no triforium and is not vaulted, has noble clustered piers from which sprang arches—only one of which remains—spanning the nave, alternating with single columns.
Other fine Romanesque buildings in Italy are the Cathedral of Verona, which has a fine two-storied porch; the Cathedral of Novara, specially noteworthy for its beautiful atrium; S. Miniato, Florence, that is of basilican plan, and, though it is without transepts, has the distinctive Romanesque feature of transverse arches upheld by clustered piers spanning the nave and aisles; S. Antonio, Piacenza, with transepts at the western instead of the eastern end, fine intersecting vaults roofing in the whole building, and a tower rising from the junction of the nave and transepts; and the Cathedral of Pisa, the last a complex building with vaulted aisles, a dome above the intersection of the transepts and nave, a flat roof over the latter, and a lofty triforium gallery running round the entire church, the general effect being most pleasing and harmonious. Close to the cathedral are the 12th century circular Baptistery, that has considerably later additions, and the famous Leaning Tower, the three buildings forming one of the finest architectural groups in the world.
Certain very marked characteristics distinguish the buildings of Sicily from those of contemporary date on the mainland of Italy, the Romanesque style, as is very clearly seen in the Cathedral of Monreale, having been there considerably modified alike by Saracenic and Norman influences. The pointed arch was adopted long before it came into use elsewhere in Europe, having been, it is suggested, a modification of the horse-shoe form so characteristic of Moorish mosques.