Page 79 - buvkeramika

79
The Gothic bond is characteristic of Brick Gothic – in each layer a stretcher is followed by a header.
This bond was sometimes applied in Danish and Lübeck churches already in the early 13th century
when forming rounded surfaces (Holst 2008, 176). Later it was distributed more extensively. Thus, the
Gothic bond in castles of the Teutonic Order in Prussia was applied not earlier than in 1290 (Torbus
1998, 318). A regular bond is characterised by arrangement of headers in even-numbered rows one on
top of another, or diagonally. In the case of irregular Gothic bond placement of vertical joints precisely
one above the other has not been observed. In the territory of Latvia the Gothic bond is referred to the
domination of the Gothic style until the late 15th century (Erdmanis 1989, 154). A regular Gothic bond
can be easily discernible, for example, in the southern wall of St. Peter’s Church in Riga, which was built
in the 15th century.
For comparison it can be mentioned that in the brick architecture of the Teutonic Order, in Prussia,
the Wendish bond was used approximately until 1300, but in the first half of the 14th century both the
Wendish and Gothic bonds were encountered, and beginning with about 1360 until the beginning of
the 16th century only the Gothic bond was used. Transition to the Gothic bond is explained by a striving
for better adhesion of the brick revetment with the filling of the wall since the number of headers was
increased in the Gothic bond (Herrmann 2007, 112).
In the Block bond a row of stretchers was interchanged with a row of headers. Block bond is a simple
pattern for brick laying – the arrangement of bricks was not to be changed along the whole horizontal
row. A subtype of the Block bond is the cross bond where in each even-numbered layer headers were
placed one on top of the other thus creating a vertical zone, but stretchers are placed vertically one above
the other in every four layers. Thus, a stretcher with one header above it and another one under it forms
a Greek cross, and this is from where the name of the bond has derived.
Already in the 13th century, the Block bond was used in the southern part of Netherlands and a while
later – about 1260 – it was encountered in St. Mary’s Church tower in Lübeck (Holst 2008, 178). However,
in north German countries and in the Baltic region it was more widely introduced and started dominating
only after year 1500, along with the distribution of the Renaissance style. In the second quarter of the
16th century, in Prussia, the Block or cross bond replaced the previously used Gothic bond (Herrmann
2007, 113). Also in the territory of Latvia builders started to lay bricks using the Block and cross bond
not earlier that only at the turn of the 15th/16th centuries (Erdmanis 1989, 153, 155). This bond is seen,
for example, in the external walls of the extension of the choir of Riga St. John’s Church, built in the late
16th century. Block and cross bond in brick masonry buildings was used until the 20th century.
Alongside these widespread bonds, brick layout of a different type also could be used in masonry
walls. Under the staircase bricks were laid in the fishbone pattern. Sometimes not large wall fragments
are encountered where only headers, or only stretchers, were laid, for example, for evening up the layers
above a foundation of irregular stones, in bricking up window or door jambs, or in partition walls. Rather
frequently the bond was not used consistently if there were a number of openings in the wall or it was
planned to plaster it up. A change of the bond explicitly indicates another building period and a later
dating of the brick wall.
In other countries the names of brick bond patterns differ. For example, Swedish and Finnish
researchers define as the monk bond the brick layout where a header follows two stretchers; as theWendish