CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE

ORIGINS OF THE BASILICA IN ROME:

Rome basilica (law court)
-Elongated form with nave and side aisles separated by colonnades or
arcades
-Raised platform or bema in apse for judges (authority figure)
Roman courtyard buildings
-Use of atrium or forecourt
Churches build in Holyland for services
Atrium: Place for Gathering
o Solution in open courtyard of standard peristyle
o Needed for overflow crowds and uninitiated visitors
o Location of fountain or well
Nave and Aisles: Places for Congregation
o Borrowed plan from judicial basilica
o Congregation stood rather than being seated
Galleries, Apse = seating for elders, two speaker’s platforms, and a baptistery

ORIGINS OF THE CENTRALIZED AND LONGITUDINAL PLAN IN ROME:

Centralized Plan:
 Visual impact at center
 Different shapes might be round, square, or octagonal space
 In tombs, baptisteries, martyrium (funerary connotations)
 Victory over death
Example:
San Stefano Rotondo in Rome (468 AD)

Timber roof over central space

Dome of the Rock (700 AD)
Octagonal plan

Longitudinal Plan:
 Visual impact at far end of long rectangular room
 Enter through one short end and look to altar at far end
  Basilican plan is perfect example

Example:
Santa Sabina in Rome (422 AD)

Spolia= reuse of architectural fragments

FOUR THEMES OF DEVELOPMENT:

1) Plan
 Straight basilican plan with nave and flanking side aisles
 What appears to be transept in Old St.Peter’s is anomaly

2) Façade
 Characteristic shed profile of tall nave and flaking side aisles
 Might also have part of atrium peristyle attached rather than narthex

3) Nave Elevation
 Ave elevation is what you inside church along flanks of nave
 Colonnade or arcade, blank wall with paintings or mosaic, clerestory
windows
 Central approach to the high altar, vaulting is key

4) Vaulting
 None over nave in early Christian architecture
 Wooden truss with ceiling panels or more often open to underside of roof