The architect

He shrugged his shoulders,

“What good will it be for you?”

“Because I don’t want to be a monk. I want to be like you.”

The craftsman pursed his lips and left to untie his bundle. I stayed where I was. Once he was back, he handed me a device consisting of two sharpened sticks fixed at the top using a metal piece incurved neatly. Milo stepped aside enjoying his primitive joke, and clapped his hands.

“Done! You are like me now. Carry on with your praying.”

I threw up my hands,

“What are these things?”

“A pair of compasses and a set square.”

* * *

A pair of compasses and a set square.

A pair of compasses and a set square.

A pair of compasses and a set square.

I met Ed on the way to the dortǒur. I exclaimed with my voice breaking,

“God bless you, Prior Edward!”

“What’s the matter?” he recoiled.

“No, I’m serious! You have brought this builder for us. I can’t believe it, Ed. Thank you, Ed, I am really in a bind here.”

* * *

“The main rule while constructing small size churches is using a preset proportion.” Mylo started to introduce me to the subtleties of the craft. “Where walls thickness should be of a certain proportion of the interior space. You understand?”

I shook my head.

The architect took me into the yard and asked me to draw a square on the ground,

“Imagine that the square is inside the church nave, and take it as a unit. And now circle it around.”

We drew around the square clockwise, drawing a smooth line with a long stick.

“There,” the craftsman raised his forefinger. “The widest part of the circle outside the square will specify the thickness of the walls.”

And he drew dashed lines from the four points, signifying the future silhouette of the building.

I looked differently at our abbey from now on. There was also enough beauty here: capitals were decorated with figurines of human beings and animals, images of the Vices and Virtues; spirals, zigzags and other geometric patterns were carved on columns. But everything seemed to be too thorough, dull, and heavy. This solid look made me choke.

From now on, the main goal was to look lighter than the others, but being stronger structurally, like an arc in Chartres.

Mylo teaches

The whole weight had been placed on the walls before. They were supposed to be thick and heavy, with small windows. To expand the structure seemed to be impossible because of the horizontal thrust of masonry vaults giving pressure on the walls, and the length of beams installed in the floor. The church space became more and more cramped. There wasn’t enough room, and then the architects decided to use the intersecting vault – the gravity moved to the lateral supports off the walls. But it was also required to reduce the weight of the vault.

Nervures (“ribs” or “veins”) are the arches located in intersecting vaults, fixing naves. Each large square of the main nave carried two side-aisles, smaller sized on the cathedral ground plan. The walls were getting rid of gravity: the easier the pressure was on the walls and posts, the higher and sharper was the arch.

Buttresses (“counterforts”) are exterior supports, located outside the cathedral. It was them which invisibly carried the enormous weight of the vault. It is due to them the cathedral rose up to an incredible height.

Arc boutants bounded the external buttresses with the internal vaults. These inclined arches gave to the construction of the sleek, weightless look. The feeling of general elegance was complemented by pinnacles – exquisitely decorated turrets mounted on the tops of buttresses to firmly press the giants to the ground, to fix them in a stable state. Two round arches were called ogives, which were an indispensable part of the construction of a vault along with four pointed arches.

Thus, cross vault laying was succeeded by the use of ribs, and the arc boutans supported the building to make it stable. Being finally free from weight, the walls were decorated with huge colored stained-glass windows. From then on, the cathedrals became incredibly tall and dazzlingly light.

Mylo let me into all aspects of the construction plan, mentioning the stones being laid onto a small amount of mortar. They could mix everything and anything between the blocks in the past. For example, the Romans used limestone mortar mixed with ground volcanic rock or he told me that there was not so much stone in the north, so it was convenient to build out of bricks. The bricks had been big and thin, and now they were very large and filled with holes to make the burning process easier.

Mylo kept the drawings on wooden tablets – wax-coated diptychs. The waxed surfaces were placed one upon another, and the tablets were tied up securely. I meticulously copied the diagrams of compound piers, windows, and drawings required for shaping stone profiles on the church parchment.

Saturated with the initial greed for knowledge and my desire to solve the puzzle I became occupied using all my free time.

“But everything stands out from general in Chartres!”

Mylo sat down on the ground next to me.

“What does the building express? Think about it.”

“Strength. Reliability. Confidence.”

“Fine. What does the Chartres Cathedral express?”

“Challenge and takeoff! But a very… nervous challenge and takeoff!”

Mylo gave me a thoughtful look,

“And what is the reason it takes off?”

I was able to formulate the idea after a few moments,

“To turn everything material into spiritual weightless.”

“Make it simple.”

“To destroy the reality and break through beyond.”

“Where?”

I remembered Jorge, turning his palm into a flying bird.

“Up to the sky.”