Gothic window planner
Design tall church windows with tracery: from a single lancet to a window full of mullions, arches and stained glass. Put a row of them in the wall of your nave, with sill, hood mould and a blind arcade. At the bottom you can see how every arch and every bar is worked out.
The round window or foil at the top. It gets as big as there is room between the arch and the bars below it.
Both stick out one block from the wall. The hood mould gets the trim block (accent) and ends at the sides in a short label stop.
Below: a row of small arches in relief under the windows. Alternate: every second window is walled up, with the tracery still visible.
Decides which glass becomes glass and which becomes glass2. With a block palette on, you give each of those two its own block.
Front view
frame mullions tracery sill hood mould arcade wall calculated linesPoint at a block to see the calculation for that column and that block. Click a block to mark it as placed.
Build breakdown
Per column, window 1
| Column | Part | Glass in row | Stone | Glass |
|---|
Columns count from the left side of the wall, rows from the ground. Click a column for the calculation of the arch at that spot.
Row 1 seen from above
| Row | Start | Pattern | Stone | Glass |
|---|
Numbers are blocks in a row, in the colour of the part. Click a row to see it from above.
Build tips
- First build the wall with the straight sides of the opening up to the springing. Then place the arch, from the outside towards the middle; both halves mirror each other.
- Mullions are just straight columns. Place them before the tracery, so you have something to hold on to for the small arches above.
- Use a lighter stone for the tracery than for the wall, for example quartz, smooth sandstone or polished andesite. Then you can read the pattern from far away.
- Glass panes make the tracery look thinner and more elegant than glass blocks. Place the glass last, so the panes connect properly.
- A deeper wall gives a recess. Make the sill out of stairs or slabs if you want it extra fine.
- For a nave: make the spacing equal to your buttresses or columns, so there is exactly one pier between every pair of windows.
3D and layer-by-layer build plan
To Minecraft
Download the design as a schematic file and paste it into your world with WorldEdit, or build along with a hologram in Litematica. The glass gets the colours of your colour scheme; with a block palette on, the palette decides everything.
Shopping list
Put the counts of this design on your list, with the glass per colour. There you see everything together, converted to stacks and shulker boxes.
How it is calculated
History and fun facts
From small windows to walls of glass
Romanesque churches had thick walls and small windows with a round arch. Often two small arches stood side by side under one large arch: a biforium.
In the Gothic period, from about 1140, the pointed arch took over. Buttresses carried the weight of the roof, so the wall between the piers could become almost all window.
Lancets and tracery
The first Gothic window was the lancet: narrow, tall and with a pointed top. Sometimes three or five stood side by side, as in Salisbury Cathedral.
Later, builders placed two lancets under one arch with a round window above. The stone lines in the window are called tracery. Around 1210, builders at Reims Cathedral began to use thin stone bars, so the tracery became fine and open.
English styles
In England, historians name a few phases. First came the lancets. Then came geometric tracery with circles and foils, and Y-tracery and intersecting tracery.
Around 1300 tracery became flowing, with ogee curves, as at Carlisle. After 1350 came the Perpendicular style, with straight mullions up into the arch. King's College Chapel in Cambridge is a famous example. After that came the flat Tudor arch.
Renaissance: the serliana
In the Renaissance, the round arch came back. The Venetian window has a tall round arch in the middle and two lower flat-topped openings beside it.
It is also called a serliana, after Sebastiano Serlio, who showed it in his book. Andrea Palladio used it a lot, so in English it is also called a Palladian window.
Stained glass
Medieval glass was expensive and came in small pieces. Glaziers set them in strips of lead and made pictures, such as Bible stories for people who could not read.
Iron bars held the glass panels in place against the wind. In the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, from 1248, the walls are almost all glass.
Did you know?
- Salisbury Cathedral was mostly built between 1220 and 1258.
- King's College Chapel in Cambridge was built between 1446 and 1515.
- The Sainte-Chapelle in Paris was consecrated in 1248.
- A pointed arch pushes sideways less than a round arch of the same width.
- The upright stone bars in a window are called mullions; the cross bars are called transoms.
About this tool
With this church window generator you design Gothic windows in Minecraft, from a single lancet to a window full of mullions, arches and stained glass. You can also place a whole row of them in the wall of your nave.
You choose from eleven types: lancet window, two-light window with oculus, stepped three-light window, Y-tracery, intersecting tracery, flowing tracery with ogees, Perpendicular tracery, Tudor window, Romanesque biforium, Venetian window (serliana) and oculus. You set the width, the height up to the springing line, the pointedness and 2 to 8 lights. At the top you can add a round window, trefoil, quatrefoil or cinquefoil.
You can add transoms and choose the thickness of mullions, frame and wall. A sill and a hood mould stick out one block from the wall. For a row of windows you set the number and the spacing, with a blind arcade below or alternating. Examples such as Salisbury, Westminster, Exeter and King's College help you get started.
The front view shows the windows with the calculated arches and centre points. The tables per column and per row show where stone and glass go, and the 3D view shows the recess. The counter counts stone, glass per colour and stacks. With the block palette and the colour scheme you choose your blocks, and then you download everything as a .schem file.
Combine the windows with buttresses and a rose window, or put them in a church from the church planner.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make a pointed arch window in Minecraft?
First build the straight sides up to the springing line. Then build the arch from the outside to the middle; both halves are mirror images. The pointedness setting decides how sharp the arch is.
Which width works well?
A lancet looks good from 3 to 5 blocks wide. For tracery with several lights you need more room, often 9 blocks or more. Odd widths give a neat point in the middle.
Which block should I use for tracery?
Choose a lighter stone than the wall, such as quartz, smooth sandstone or polished andesite. Then you can see the pattern from far away. Glass panes make the tracery look thinner and more elegant.
How do I fit the windows neatly between buttresses?
Make the space between the windows equal to the width of your buttresses or columns. Then there is exactly one pier between each pair of windows.
What is a blind arcade?
A blind arcade is a row of small arches in relief on the wall, without an opening. In the tool it can go below the windows, or alternate, where every second window is filled in with the tracery still visible.
Can I build this in Bedrock?
The tables per column and per row work in every edition, including Bedrock. The .schem file is for Minecraft Java Edition, with WorldEdit or Litematica.