The Cultural Elite of the Renaissance Period saw Gothic architecture as crude and barbaric. The 'horrid novels' becoming popular at the time, such as Horace Walpole's 'Castle of Otranto' had a common theme of being set in dark, crumbling medieval castles or other ruins (monasteries were also popular). These 'horrid novels' were labelled 'gothic' due to the architecture that draws the imaginative impulse, and the label stuck.