French Gothic architecture
The most famous examples of Gothic architecture are found in the Île-de-France and Champagne, but other French regions created their own original versions of the style. The Angevin Gothic style in the province of Anjou features a vaults with elegant decorative ribs, as well as very ornate columns. The style is found in the interior of Angers Cathedral (1032–1523), though many of the Gothic elements of the facade were replaced with Renaissance elements and towers. A very fine example of Angevin Gothic is found in the medieval Saint Jean Hospital in Angers, which now contains the Musée Jean-Lurçat, a museum of contemporary tapestries.
Church architecture in Scotland
A more elaborate style known as decorated Gothic, applying ornamentation to vaults and pillars, particularly using curved motifs, began to be adopted in the thirteenth century and was characteristic of Scottish church building in the fourteenth century. It was used at Dunblane Cathedral, built in the thirteenth century, particularly to decorate the nave and East end. At Fortrose in the Highlands the elaborate decoration of this style is still visible in the south aisle. One of the finest examples is Sweetheart Abbey near Dumfries, a Cistercian monastery, named after the burial of John de Balliol's heart alongside the body of his wife. The period of the Wars of Independence (1296–1357) saw a large number of ecclesiastical buildings ruined, including Melrose and Jedburgh Abbeys. Church building was largely confined to the parish churches in the relatively secure areas like Fife, as at St. Monans, originally a church of the Dominican friars.
In the fifteenth century continental builders are known to have been working in Scotland. French master-mason John Morrow was employed at the building of Glasgow Cathedral and the rebuilding of Melrose Abbey, both considered fine examples of Gothic architecture. Compared with after the Reformation, the interiors of churches were often elaborate, with highly decorated sacrament houses, like the ones surviving at Deskford and Kinkell. The carvings at Rosslyn Chapel, depicting the progression of the seven deadly sins, were created in the mid-fifteenth century. They are considered some of the finest in the Gothic style. Late Medieval Scottish churches also often contained elaborate burial monuments, like the Douglas tombs in the town of Douglas.