One innovation was the replacement of the round barrel vault of Romanesque churches with a combination of ribbed vaults and pointed arches.
This change enabled builders to make Gothic churches higher than Romanesque churches.
The use of pointed arches and ribbed vaults also creates an impression of upward movement, as if the building is reaching to God.
Another technological innovation was the flying buttress—a heavy, arched support of stone built onto the outside of the walls.
Flying buttresses made it possible to distribute the weight of the church’s vaulted ceilings outward and down.
This eliminated the heavy walls needed in Romanesque churches to hold the weight of the massive barrel vaults.