Rose window planner
Design a round church window in your wall. Choose the tracery, the number of spokes and the colours of the glass, and build it block by block. At the bottom you can see, with the polar coordinates of every block, how the tool decides what becomes stone and what becomes glass.
0 lets all lines meet in the middle. Up to 3 the centre becomes a solid boss, larger becomes a ring with glass.
Thin: diagonal lines only touch at a corner. Normal: always along a side.
Places a ring at 42% of the band. Offset spokes go inside that ring, the tracery moves to the outer band.
For the roundels in Concentric and Hexagram, and for a centre of 7 blocks or more.
Glass turns everything by half a sector, so a glass pane sits straight at the top.
Decides which glass panes become glass and which become glass2. With a block palette on, you give each of those two its own block.
Front view
outer ring tracery centre ring wall calculated linesPoint at a block: at the bottom you see the calculation for that block. Click a block to mark it as placed; the sector and row of that block open below.
Build breakdown
One sector enlarged
Row 1 seen from above
| Row | Start | Pattern | Stone | Glass |
|---|
Rows count from the ground, columns from the left side of the wall. Start is the column of the first block of the window. Click a row to see it from above.
Build tips
- Build the outer ring all the way round first. Then you know everywhere where the tracery has to meet it.
- Place a temporary line of blocks from the centre upwards and sideways. That way you find the centre again and can count the rows easily.
- Build the tracery sector by sector with the enlarged view. With 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 or 24 spokes a quarter turn is identical, so you only really need to count one quarter.
- Place the glass last. Glass panes connect to the stone next to them by themselves, so put all the stone in first.
- Put a light source behind the window, or build it in a south-facing wall. Stained glass looks best with light behind it.
- A thicker wall (depth 2 or 3) gives the window a deep recess, just like in a real cathedral.
3D and layer-by-layer build plan
To Minecraft
Download the design as a schematic file and paste it into your world with WorldEdit, or build along with a hologram in Litematica. The glass gets the colours of your colour scheme; with a block palette on, the palette decides everything.
Shopping list
Put the counts of this design on your list, with the glass per colour. There you see everything together, converted to stacks and shulker boxes.
How it is calculated
History and fun facts
From oculus to rose
Round windows already existed in ancient times. The Pantheon in Rome has a round opening in its dome, the oculus, which means 'eye'.
Romanesque churches had small round windows in the front wall. In the Gothic period, from the 12th century, they grew into large rose windows full of tracery and coloured glass.
Where are they?
A rose window is usually high in the west front, above the main entrance. Large cathedrals often have one in the walls of the transept too, on the north and south sides.
The light falls through the window into the nave. When the sun shines, the glass colours the floor and the columns.
Famous examples
Chartres Cathedral has three large rose windows from the 13th century. Notre-Dame in Paris has two large roses in the transept.
Strasbourg Cathedral has a large rose window in its west front. York Minster in England has a rose window with the Tudor rose. In late Gothic, windows got flame-like shapes, as in Amiens Cathedral.
How was such a window made?
Stonemasons drew the pattern at full size on a drawing floor, with a compass and a rope. Then they carved each piece of tracery separately.
The glass was coloured with metals, such as cobalt for blue. Glaziers cut small pieces and set them in lead. The stained glass panels were fixed into the stone window with iron bars.
What does it mean?
A rose window is round and symmetrical. In the Middle Ages the circle was seen as a sign of unity and perfection.
In the centre there is often Christ or Mary, with saints, prophets, signs of the zodiac or the months of the year around them.
Did you know?
- The transept rose windows of Notre-Dame in Paris are each about 13 metres wide.
- The roses of Notre-Dame survived the great fire of 2019.
- The blue in the glass of Chartres is so well known that people call it 'Chartres blue'.
- The Pantheon in Rome has an oculus about 9 metres wide, without glass.
- In French a rose window is called a 'rose'.
About this tool
With this rose window generator you design a round church window in Minecraft. You choose the tracery, the number of spokes and the colours of the glass. Then you build the window block by block in your wall.
There are eight types of tracery: wheel with straight spokes, flower with round petals, Gothic with small pointed arches, flame with S-curves, star, concentric with circles and foils, Star of David and compass rose. You set the diameter, 3 to 24 spokes, the thickness of the outer ring, the centre (oculus) and the line thickness. You can add a second ring inside and trefoils to sexfoils in the circles.
For the glass you choose a colour scheme, such as Cathedral (blue and red), Rainbow or Grisaille, and a split per sector, per ring or alternating. Glass can be panes or full blocks. Examples such as Chartres, Notre-Dame, Strasbourg and York help you get started.
The front view shows the whole window with the calculated lines. With the enlarged sector and the list per row you can build it exactly, and the 3D view shows the depth. The counter gives stone, glass per colour and stacks. With the block palette you choose your own blocks. Then you download the window as a .schem file, with or without the wall around it.
Put the window in the front of a church from the church planner, or combine it with Gothic windows. For a plain pixel circle there is the circle generator.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make a rose window in Minecraft?
First build the outer ring all the way round. Then place the tracery sector by sector, using the enlarged view. Place the glass last, so the panes connect properly to the stone.
How big should a rose window be?
From about 15 blocks in diameter the tracery is easy to see. For many spokes and foils, choose 25 blocks or more. A small oculus of 7 to 11 blocks fits above a door.
Glass panes or glass blocks?
Panes make the window lighter and more elegant, and they connect to the stone next to them. Blocks look fuller and are useful if you want bright colours.
Why is my glass so dark?
Stained glass looks best with light behind it. Put a light source behind the window, or build it in a wall facing south. Then look at it from the inside.
How do I find the centre while building?
Put a temporary pole from the centre upwards and sideways. Count rows from the ground and columns from the left side of the wall, just like in the table.
Can I build this in Bedrock?
The list per row and the front view work in every edition, including Bedrock. The .schem file is for Minecraft Java Edition, with WorldEdit or Litematica.