Characteristics of Romanesque Architecture - Design
The design and characteristics of Romanesque Architecture had to be a combination of practical use and the aesthetic design, especially in the building of castles! Characteristics of Romanesque Architecture had to take the following into consideration:

• The castle design and Romanesque architecture needed to convey Fear, Awe, Domination, Envy, Submission, Respect, Power and Wealth

• The Comfort of the stone castle interior significantly improved from the wooden Motte and Bailey Castles but were still cold, smelly and dim
• Ornamentation? The Medieval Stone masons were able to add some ornamentation to the Romanesque castles
• Economy - The Medieval castles designed in the Romanesque Architecture style was expensive - but durable!

Characteristics of Romanesque Architecture - Defining Features
The characteristics of Romanesque Architecture can be defined as having the following features:

• Stone was cut with precision

• Walls were initially solid but the walls and shell keeps designed in the Romanesque architecture style were hollow and distributed the weight of the stones
• The use of the Roman arch led to the stone being supported in the middle by the arch construction
• The stone used was extremely heavy. The weight of the ceilings would tend to buckle the walls outward and large piles of stone would be stacked along the wall in intervals to buttress (or support) the walls from pushing outward - these piles of stones became features of Romanesque Architecture and buttresses were introduced to the basic design and a major characteristic of Romanesque architecture
• The window openings of Romanesque Architecture castles had to be small to keep the strength of the walls strong
• The Vault - The most important structural developments and characteristics of Romanesque architecture was the vault. The vault was developed to enable the construction of stone roofs - wooden roofs were an obvious fire hazard
  • Barrel or Tunnel Vaults - consisted of a continuous surface of semicircular or pointed sections resembling a barrel or tunnel which has been cut in half lengthwise
  • Groin Vault - A vault produced by the intersection, at right angles of two barrel vaults. The arches of groin vaults were either pointed or round