The 13th-century Choir and Transepts of Rievaulx Abbey

The 13th-century choir and transepts of Rievaulx Abbey are the best preserved and visually most impressive part of one of the most important monastic sites in Britain. Whether seen from the bottom of the Rye Valley, towering above the less well preserved remains of the cloister buildings and 12th-century nave ( Pl. XIXA ), or glimpsed from the 18th-century terrace above, through tree cuttings specifically sighted on it, the 13th-century east end of Rievaulx commands the attention of all visitors to the site. It is surprising, then, that scholars have paid little serious attention to 13th-century Rievaulx and that a number of archaeological and art historical problems remain unresolved. 1 These include the sequence of construction and the presence of various anomalies in the design that can be explained only poorly through traditional methodologies of diachronic formal progression, problems of reconstruction involving particularly the flying buttresses, the historical motivations behind the rebuilding, its date, and its larger significance within the context of the Early English Gothic style in the north. This essay can hardly hope to offer definitive answers to all these questions, but hopes at least to open the discussion.