Hawaiian Architecture - Romanesque

Romanesque

In the last years of the Hawaiian monarchy and early years of the territorial period, Hawaiian Romanesque architecture came into popular use. The style hearkened back to the European designs of the 11th and 12th centuries. Hawaiian Romanesque employed principles and forms used by Romans in later periods of the ancient empire. The difference was that Hawaiian builders used dark basalt boulders giving the appearance of a uniquely Hawaiian style. Such buildings typically used rounded arches, barrel vaults and groin vaults and cruciform piers for support. The various buildings of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum are in the Hawaiian Romanesque style.