Gothic, a visual aesthetic that embodied a religious intensity that formed spikey castles from what had been, by comparison, banal logical formalism, first raised its fabulous head circa 1140, in France in the Ile-de-France, the royal chambers of the Capetian kings. While this example first puts all of the elements together, the common facets of Gothic architecture did not spontaneously appear as if by magic but were culled forth from the architecture of Normandy. As for the ribbed vaulting and pointed arches, they were first used in the Romanesque period. Also, to the year, another key milestone in the Gothic roadmap was in the creation of the Abbey of Saint-Denis. It established the movement toward a more light-filled and spaciaous cathedral, employed the ribbed vaulting and the high pointed arches. The long, lean, clean lines, together with some of the first—and simply tremendous—stained glass windows, truly set the tone for the entire Gothic age. The 12th Century was chockablock with more and more Gothic masterpieces in France, popping up in not only Paris, of course, but Laon, Noyon, and Sens as well. The next phase, knowns as High Gothic, touched Reims, Bourges, Amiens and Beauvais.