ABSTRACT

Gothic architecture spread from the 12th Century in Western Europe, with some trespasses in the Middle East and in the Slavic-Byzantine Europe. Many important abbeys were built in those areas, providing a key impulse to the regional economy and contributing to a general social, economic and cultural development. Monastic orders and in particular the Cistercian one, with its monasteries, had an important role to broaden the new architectonic message, adapting to the local traditions the technical and formal heritage received by the Gothic style (Grodecki 1976, Gimpel 1982, De Longhi 1958).