penfairy:

there was no name for the Gothic style of architecture until the 15th century – until then it was just architecture. Modern, cutting-edge stuff. ‘Gothic’ was used pejoratively in the Renaissance to describe things that were crude, rustic or uncivilised, and the style went out of fashion for a few hundred years until the 18th century, when people said “look at all this gross old shit.” then they thought about it and conceded “I guess it’s kind of cool.” and then they knelt down, caressed the stone, and whispered “it’s also a little bit sexy”