Did one abbot really invent Gothic architecture?

Not quite. Abbot Suger is often called the inventor of Gothic architecture, because the choir he built at the abbey of Saint-Denis, near Paris, was dedicated on 11 June 1144 in the presence of the king, and his rebuilding was instrumental in creating the Gothic style. But recent scholars have discounted the idea that he was its designer. They see him as a bold and imaginative patron who encouraged the work of an innovative, but now unknown, master mason.

Suger was an adviser to two kings and, during the Second Crusade, regent for Louis VII. He began collecting money for a renovation as early as 1124, though the full rebuild did not start until 1137. His goal for the new choir was light: it was to be suffused with light, with slender columns replacing the heavy dividing walls.

To get there, his masons drew on the rib vault with pointed arches and on exterior buttresses that made larger windows possible. Few of these ideas were new, since they came from Romanesque buildings, especially in Normandy and Burgundy. What was new was that they had all been drawn together for the first time, giving a structure of unusual lightness with large stained glass windows.

And the combination was copied: the Bishop of Noyon used the choir of Saint-Denis as his direct model and hired the same masons as Suger.