Throughout the next two centuries, the style largely lost favor, until Horace Walpole, a writer, decided he wanted his own “little Gothic castle.” In 1749, he built his estate in London, called Strawberry Hill, modeled off of Gothic cathedrals and medieval castles. Defined by arched windows, stained glass, turrets, and battlements, the residence is largely considered the first Gothic Revival building and contributed to the widespread re-interest in the historic aesthetic.
The 18th century then saw a boom in neo-Gothic buildings, many of which were residences. Today, they are recognizable for their use of pointed arches (seen on doors, windows, and gables), high-pitched roofs, and vergeboard (wooden trim attached to gables).
Perhaps coincidentally, philosopher Edmund Burke published A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful around this same time, in 1757, which became an extremely an influential text that detailed what he called sublime art. “Whatever is in any sort terrible or is conversant about terrible objects or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime,” he wrote. Burke separated the beautiful from the sublime, and aesthetic theories generally classify the sublime as work that showcases greatness beyond measurement, comprehension, or experience; its magnitude is both awe-inspiring and terrifying.
Other important literature that was published during this time was work by Watpole himself. His novel, Castle of Otranto, was reportedly inspired by a dream he had while living at Strawberry Hill. Set in a castle in the Middle Ages, the epic details a lord and his family living in a haunted mansion. “In the late 18th and 19th century, Gothic became associated with spookiness, which got wound into ideas of the exotic and sublime,” Dr. Bork says. “By the 20th century, you have movies and mass media that start using this.”
