Pugin and the Revival of Gothic Architecture

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Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852) was a famous architect and designer who dissented from traditional classical designs to favour the revival of Gothic architecture which he believed would result in a return to a much better past by the representation of a Christian style as he believed the classical styles to be pagan and out of place within Northern Europe (Richardson, McKellar, Woods, 2008, p109). Pugin wanted to return to the Gothic style which existed prior to the Protestant Reformation, however, he did not necessarily consider himself a dissenter but a radical traditionalist (Richardson, McKellar, Woods, 2008, p131) who strongly believed that returning to the Gothic style was merely returning it back to the English style. Pugin certainly did dissent from religion by converting in 1835 from his Protestant upbringing to Roman Catholicism as he believed he had a moral obligation to do so as this was the dominant style when Britain was Roman Catholic (Richardson, McKellar, Woods, 2008 p121). Pugin confirmed his beliefs in the revival of Gothic architecture by the publication of writings and “Contrasts” was at the time seen to be very controversial as he blamed the Reformation and Protestantism for architectural decline. Pugin obtained his inspiration from visiting other European Countries, especially Lubeck in North East Germany where the Roman Catholic Church was the predominant style and enabled Pugin to incorporate their architectural designs into his own work. (St Chad’s and Religious Art, AA100 DVD) St Chad’s took 2 years to build in 1841 and was the first Catholic cathedral since the reformation and Pugin was appointed by Bishop Thomas Walsh to revive the Gothic architectural style. This Cathedral is also extremely unique as had three generations of Pugin architects working on it up to the 1930s. Following Pugin’s conversion to Roman
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