I think the primary was stain glass. It was seen as the light of God and it was a way for the church to educate the people about the bible. People couldn't read but they could interpret the stories in glass. Then, the next was the flying buttresses and the statuary. Not to mention the fresco's . All of this worked together for a special space full of light and color like nothing else in the middle age world. Seeing these today is still an awe inspiring experience.
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The piazza's open spaces, orderly contours and monumental buildings, statues, fountains and churches served as places of civic ritual in Italian history. They were of importance serving as the city-states control of movement of goods and the populace in general during medieval Italy. Even today, they serve as the main site of communal gathering and daily fruit and vegetable markets. An excellent book to read would be "The Italian Piazza Transformed: Parma in the Communal Age" by Areli Marina published very recently in 2012.
the competition among italian city-states for power
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During the Middle Ages, the churches quite often held all the power, dictating laws to the entire area. The church was also the center of social life. Being rejected by the church was devastating.
They had to sell off their land....