This course provides an introduction to the built environment of the Middle Ages, surveying a range of architectural styles - Early Christian, Byzantine, Carolingian, Romanesque, and Gothic. This course familiarizes students with the architectural traditions of the great cathedrals, revered pilgrimage churches, and reclusive monasteries, as well as castles, houses, and other civic structures. We will integrate the study of the architecture with the study of medieval culture, exploring the role of pilgrimage, courts and civil authority, religious reform and radicalism, crusading and social violence, and rising urbanism. In this way we will explore the ways in which the built environment profoundly affected contemporary audiences and shaped medieval life.