Gothic Flying Buttress Structural System

Timeline

1. c. 1140–1180Abbey Church of Saint-Denis · Saint-DenisIn the rebuilding overseen by Abbot Suger, flying buttresses worked with ribbed vaults to shift lateral thrust outward, greatly increasing window area and establishing the basic structural paradigm of the Gothic stone church.
2. 1200–1300Notre-Dame de Paris · ParisCathedrals at Paris, Chartres, and Reims arranged flying buttresses in tiers, combining them with pointed arches and tracery to create soaring naves and effects of light and shadow; the technique spread to England and the Rhineland.
3. c. 1441–1450Strasbourg Cathedral · StrasbourgIn the mid-15th century, late Gothic projects in the Rhineland and France still relied on flying buttresses to maintain wide-span vaults and complex geometric roofs; cathedrals at Strasbourg and elsewhere continued to be built and heightened in their own time, demonstrating the system's mature application at the close of the High period.
4. 1500–1900Western Europe · Western EuropeNew churches in the Classical and Baroque periods rarely adopted the full Gothic flying buttress system, but extensive restoration of medieval survivals relied on the original buttress logic; in the 19th-century Gothic Revival the technique was again studied and imitated.