12th century circular
Baptistery, that has considerably later additions, and the famous
Leaning Tower, the three buildings forming one of the finest
architectural groups in the world.

Certain very marked characteristics distinguish the buildings of Sicily
from those of contemporary date on the mainland of Italy, the Romanesque
style, as is very clearly seen in the Cathedral of Monreale, having been
there considerably modified alike by Saracenic and Norman influences.
The pointed arch was adopted long before it came into use elsewhere in
Europe, having been, it is suggested, a modification of the horse-shoe
form so characteristic of Moorish mosques.

In France, Romanesque ecclesiastical architecture followed, in the main,
the same lines as in Italy, with, in many cases, one notable addition,
that of the chevet, a circlet of chapels round the eastern apse, which
gradually grew out of what was known as an ambulatory, that is to say, a
space in which perambulation was possible, obtained by the extension of
the aisles behind the choir. In early examples of the ambulatory the
circle was continuous, as in the church of S. Saturnin, Auvergne, but as
time went on, small semicircular chapels were introduced, with windows
between them, that gradually developed into the chevet, the chapels
increasing in number and in size, and in some cases extending westwards
along the aisles.

The churches and cathedrals of Southern France differ in several
respects from those of the North, the aisleless basilica plan with
barrel, intersecting, or domed vaulting being of frequent occurrence in
the former, whilst in the latter the beautiful arcaded aisles and
steeply pitched roof presage the approach of the Gothic style with its
pointed arches, groined roofs, flying buttresses, and tapering
pinnacles.

The five-domed S. Front in Perigueux, though it has rudimentary aisles
only, is a good example of an early French Romanesque building, in which
Oriental influence is very perceptible, it being in some of its features
a copy of S. Marco, Venice, whilst in the later Cathedral of Angouleme
of cruciform plan with apsidal chapels, that of Le Puy with a triple
entrance porch, the church of S. Hilaire, Poitiers, with its irregular
domes, the uncompleted S. Ours, Loche, with its pyramidal octagonal
spires, S. Saturnin, Toulouse, with its central many-storied tapering
tower, the 12th century churches of Vezelay and Avallon; the cathedral
and church of