Culture and European civilization underwent an acceleration after the thousand years, thanks to a series of technological innovations, above all in agriculture, which allowed to increase food production, raising the population dall'endemica scarcity of food. This triggered a virtuous cycle that allowed a population increase, the resumption of trade and development of villages and cities such as locations of markets, the growth of urban areas gradually allowed the emergence of a new social class, the "bourgeois" dedicated to the activities manufacturing and trade and intermediate between the mass of peasants and aristocrats or ecclesiastics. Moreover, especially in France, the fragmented feudal power by creating a class of warlords. All of these entities will soon trigger a significant demand for new buildings, especially religious. To this is added the activity of the reformed abbeys (as in the eleventh century Cluny and Citeaux in the twelfth century), the system of parishes in the countryside, the spread of pilgrimages and the consequent need for large churches, hospitals and housing for pilgrims.