No, we’re not talking about the dark subculture we know as Goth! We’re talking about the style of art and architecture In Europe from the 1100s to the beginnings of the Renaissance at about 1400.
Just how did Gothic architects support heavy stone ceilings and create the effect of heaven on earth?
Originally designed as a monument symbolizing the Reconquest, the Convent of the Knights Templar of Tomar came to symbolize the opening up of Portugal to other civilizations.
There are two sides to every story, and so it is here. The Germans did shell the cathedral but their explanation as to why they did so was wildly at odds with the French account.
Images of the side wound and the mystical tradition from which they emerge have provided fertile material for scholars engaged in “queering” the Middle Ages.