"Medieval" American Architecture

         Let me start this post by saying that there are no such things as Middle Ages or Medieval Architecture in America. Saying that it is would be an Anachronism. The term 'Middle Ages' refers exclusively to Europe during the period roughly between 5th and 15th century. 

         That doesn't mean that there is no architecture from that time period in America. Native Americans knew how to build things before Europeans arrived. However, medieval architecture refers solely to structures build by the Europeans. Quite curiously, there are some examples of it in America.

Pre-Columbian buildings

There are  several known examples of buildings constructed by Europeans on Amercan soil long before Columbus ever set sail. They are of Norse origins. That means they were built by well-known Scandinavian sailors - the Vikings.

The best preserved one is, certainly, the Hvalsey Church. Located in Greenland, the now-abandoned church is believed to be from 12th century. Hvalsey is located on a narrow strip of land at the head of a fjord, with the church situated around 70 metres from the water. The church is located in a classic Greenlandic Norse farmstead, with several additional adjacent buildings. The farmstead included a large building approximately 1,300 square metres in size. It had eleven rooms, combining living quarters, an 8-by-5-metre banqueting hall and livestock pens. There were other livestock pens away from the main building, a horse enclosure for visitors to keep their horses, a storage building further up the hill and a warehouse at the edge of the water.

The church's arch window

The banquet hall

Southern aspect of the church

The Farmstead buildings

The horse pen

Nearby stables

Post-Medieval "imports"

There are several instances in which Medieval buildings, originally located in Europe, were dissasembled and transported across the ocean to America where they were put back together once again. Here are some most notable instances:

The Cloisters

The Cloisters is a museum in Upper Manhattan, New York City specializing in European medieval architecture, sculpture, and decorative artsThe Cloister's architectural features are largely from the Romanesque and Gothic periods. The building centers on four cloisters —the Cuxa, Bonnefont, Trie, and Saint-Guilhem cloisters— sourced from French monasteries and abbeys. They were excavated from Europe and between 1934 and 1939 reconstructed in the four-acre site in Washington Heights.The design, layout, and ambiance of the building is intended to evoke a sense of the Medieval European monastic life through its architecture. The museum contains approximately five thousand medieval works of art from the Mediterranean and Europe, mostly from the 12th to 15th centuries

View of the main entrance

Fountain at the Trie cloisters

Doorway from Moutiers-Saint-Jean, French, c 1250, from the monastery of Moutiers-Saint-Jean

View of the Bonnefont cloisters

Agecroft Hall

Agecroft Hall is a Tudor manor house and estate located at 4305 Sulgrave Road, on the James River in the Windsor Farms neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia, United States. The manor house was built in the late 15th century, and was originally located in the Irwell Valley at Agecroft, Pendlebury, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England, but by the 20th century it was unoccupied and in a state of disrepair.

Front view of the manor

Rear fountain

Typical example of Tudor architecture

St. Joan of Arc Chapel

Originally named "Chapelle de St. Martin de Seyssuel", the chapel was built over several generations in the French village of Chasse-sur-Rhône, south of Lyon. It is estimated that it was erected around the 15th century. The building was abandoned after the French Revolution and fell into ruin.

The chapel was shipped to New York in 1927 where it was reconstructed for Gertrude Hill Gavin, the new owner, by John Russell Pope. There it was attached to a French Renaissance chateau. Although the chateau burned down in 1962, the chapel was not damaged.

After Gavin died, her estate passed to Marc B. Rojtman and his wife, who decided to present the chapel to Marquette University in 1964.

Of course, these are not the only examples of moving buildng from Europe to America. There are numerous other instances of transporting whole building or just some elements or ornaments.