Spooky season approaches! We are all looking forward to the monsters, stories, haunted houses and loads of sweets this holiday has to offer. Halloween has very strong symbolism tied to it, but have you ever wondered where some of it comes from? Let’s take a deep dive into architecture, and the styles that are so strongly associated with this spooktacular holiday.
Gothic Architecture in Europe lasted from the mid- 12th to the 16th century, and has had several revivals since. The term derives from the Goths, a group of nomadic, germanic people who lived from 400-500 A.D. who helped bring about the fall of the Roman Empire. The Goths’ dominance is said to have marked the start of the medieval period. Feats in engineering and masonry in the 13th century allowed for large scale structures to be built. The style is characterized by; pointed arches, buttressing, meticulous ornamentation, asymmetry and - more commonly - stained glass windows and gargoyles.
When gothic architecture first appeared, it defied the symmetrical, and geometric classicism. Gothic was used by state, church and universities. Its interpretation was strictly associated with religion and academia.
Today, when we think about gothic architecture, we often imagine dark and eerie constructions, designed to inspire mystery and gloom, perhaps even ruin and dark labyrinths. Much of this derives from images we see on television. You might have seen Edward ScissorHands (1991) or Crimson Peak (2015), both are fantastic examples of the use of gothic architecture in modern cinema. We can trace our association of Gothic architecture to dark and gloomy scenes back to the 18th and 19th centuries, with the releases of popular books such as Mary Shelly´s Frankenstein, or Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Gothic architecture was also considered barbaric by critics in the Renaissance, as a result of the style’s radical opposition to classical architecture.
In addition to gothic architecture, the Second Empire style is also frequently associated with Halloween. You may have heard of the Victorian era, which spanned 60 years, under the rule of Queen Victoria of Great Britain. Many styles overlapped under that time, including but not limited to Folk Victorian, Queen Anne, Stick Style and the Second Empire. The latter is what we associate with creepy and haunted mansions, along with Gothic, it is also frequently displayed in television and cinema. Some well known examples of this include; Victor Creed’s House in Stranger Things (2016), or Nevermoor Academy in Wednesday (2022). The Second Empire refers to a style which originated in France, during the reign of Napoleon lll (1852-1870), called the Second Empire, hence the name of the style. It is characterized by pavilions, dormer windows, molded cornices and mansard roofs (designed to create a maximum amount of space under the roof). They began as a sign of wealth and pride, and slowly a new cultural movement took a step away from common Victorian Styles, and a sense of modernism instilled in the population. These dollhouse-like homes became a symbol of pretentiousness. Furthermore, following the period post World War 1, returning soldiers now saw it only as a symbol of death as they imagined the large factories and wealth once held by their relatives in the Victorian Era. Slowly, the style was further associated with decay and a sense of hollowness, with artists characterizing the buildings in their art. Victorian buildings were being demolished to make room for new and modern buildings, making them less frequent and more of an idea of fiction. Slowly, through the media, abandoned Victorian homes became increasingly associated as being spooky and haunted.
Architecture plays a crucial part in forming that well known eerie, mysterious and spine-chilling feeling we associate with this spooky holiday. Culture and history are deeply woven into the picture of Halloween we hold, and it would be vastly different without the Gothic and Second Empire buildings we attribute to it.
Happy Halloween everyone!
by Isabella DP22