ABSTRACT
The Goths were a Germanic tribe in the third to fifth centuries noted for their savage ways. The term ‘Gothic’ was first applied to the architecture of the twelfth to fifteenth centuries by way of characterizing its supposed lack of refinement. But in due time ‘Gothic’ has come to be proudly owned, imitated and revived and it stands not only for style and technique but also for a certain integrity, for high spiritual and moral standards as well as aesthetic principles.
