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.
Portuguese Romanesque architecture
Thus, in Portugal, the strong presence and popularity of Romanesque until later centuries meant that this decorative and architectural Cistercian model was the perfect basis for the slow change into Gothic style, without never completely cutting off with the previous Romanesque. Instead, these two styles merged in Portuguese architecture like nowhere else in Europe within a specific kind called Mendicant Gothic, typical of monastic buildings. Alcobaça, one of the biggest Cistercian abbeys in the world, is the first fully Gothic building in Portugal, but it still has a heavy and austere exterior appearance, only balanced by its tall and massive rib vaulted central nave and aisles. Churches like Santa Maria dos Olivais in Tomar, or São João de Alporão in Santarém are perfect examples of this Mendicant transitional period between the Romanesque and the definitive settle of Gothic style, which would only be a reality by the 14th and 15th centuries.