Fan vault

A fan vault is a special kind of ceiling design used in buildings made in the Gothic style. It looks like a fan because all the curved lines are the same and spread out evenly to create a shape that looks like a cone. This design started in England during a time called the Perpendicular Gothic style.

Fan vaulting over the nave at Bath Abbey, England: made from local Bath stone, this is a Victorian restoration (in the 1860s) of the original roof of 1608

The oldest known fan vault was built around the year 1351 in the cloisters of Gloucester Cathedral. Today, the biggest fan vault in the world is in King's College Chapel, Cambridge.

Fan vaults are mostly found only in England. There is a similar design in a cathedral in Barbastro, Spain, but it is not a perfect fan vault. Some experts think this design might have come from influences brought by Catherine of Aragon.

Birth of the fan vault

The fan vault is a special kind of ceiling design that began in Gloucester between 1351 and 1377. The oldest example we still have today is in the east cloister walk of Gloucester Cathedral. Around the same time, you can see early fan vault designs at the Holy Trinity Chapel of nearby Tewkesbury Abbey, dating to 1375.

Experts think that a worker named Thomas de Cantebrugge, who came from a small place near Cambridge, Gloucestershire, helped finish the east cloister at Gloucester. He later worked on the chapter house at Hereford Cathedral, which might also have had a fan vault, though we only know this from an old drawing.

Structure

A fan vault has ribs that curve the same way and are spaced evenly around a central point, making a shape that looks like a fan. Flat spaces called spandrels fill in the gaps between these curved sections. This is different from other types of rib vaults where the ribs meet in the middle.

The fan vault style began in England. It developed there because of how English builders constructed rib vaults, which was different from the methods used in places like France.

Buildings with fan vaulting

Medieval and Early Modern

Some famous buildings with fan vaulting include Gloucester Cathedral, where the earliest example began in 1373. King's College Chapel, Cambridge has the world's largest fan vault, made between 1512 and 1515. Other notable places are Bath Abbey in Somerset, Brasenose College, Oxford, and Canterbury Cathedral, among many others.

Gothic Revival

Later buildings inspired by this style include Eastnor Castle, the Grand Theatre in Leeds, and Harkness Tower at Yale University in the United States. Also, Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC, features a Children's Chapel with fan vaulting.