The Christian missionary Ulfilas devises an alphabet for the language of the Goths, so that he can translate the Bible into Gothic

The new abbey church of St Denis is consecrated near Paris, introducing the style of architecture later known as Gothic

The biblical kings and queens in the west porch of Chartres cathedral are a striking early example of Gothic sculpture

The Gothic style is first seen in Britain in the new east end of Canterbury cathedral

Construction begins in Paris on the Sainte Chapelle, designed to house relics acquired by Louis IX, the king of France

Flying buttresses are a striking new structural feature on the exterior of Gothic cathedrals

The Early English phase in Gothic architecture gives way to the Decorated style

In places such as Siena and Orvieto, Italian architects add a blaze of colour to the more restrained northern pattern of Gothic

The Doge's Palace, begun in its present form in this year, is only one of the spectacular beauties of Venetian Gothic

The Perpendicular style develops from the Decorated phase in English Gothic architecture

Fan vaulting becomes part of the Gothic tradition, seen to perfection in the cloisters of Gloucester cathedral

The final style of medieval painting, common to all Europe, is known as International Gothic because of its slender and elegant figures

The three Limburg brothers illustrate for the duke of Berry the Très Riches Heures, one of the masterpieces of International Gothic

John Robartes extends and remodels Radnor House in the gothic style.

Horace Walpole begins to create his own Strawberry Hill, a neo-Gothic fantasy, on the banks of the Thames west of London

Horace Walpole forms a 'Committee of Taste' with friends John Chute and Richard Bentley, and creates his 'little Gothic castle' over the next 50 years, giving rise to the style 'Strawberry Hill Gothic'.

English author Horace Walpole provides an early taste of Gothic thrills in his novel Castle of Otranto

US author Charles Brockden Brown publishes Wieland, the first of four novels setting Gothic romance in an American context

Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, a Gothic tale about giving life to an artificial man

The King’s Free School is established in a small Gothic building near the pond, with George IV as a major subscriber

New St Mary's Church opens, designed by Edward Lapidge, in white brick with stone dressings in Gothic revival style and with sqare pinnacled tower at the west end

English architect and designer Augustus Welby Pugin plays a major part in the second stage of the Gothic Revival

The architect Charles Barry employs Pugin to design the Gothic detail required in the competition to build the new House of Parliament

Charles Barry wins the competition to design the new Houses of Parliament

Work begins on Charles Barry's spectacular design for London's new Houses of Parliament