Early Christian & Byzantine Architecture

Early Christian & Byzantine Architecture

 Early Christian & Byzantine Architecture
• The empire emerged gradually after AD 330,
Byzantine Empire
when Constantine moved the capital of the
Roman Empire to Byzantium, which was later • the term conventionally used
renamed Constantinople and is now Istanbul to describe the Greek-
speaking Roman Empire
• The Golden Age of Byzantine Architecture during the Middle Ages,
was under the rule of Justinian in 527 – 565. centered at its capital
Constantinople
• often referred as the Eastern
Roman Empire
• referring to the centuries that
marked the fall of the
Western Roman Empire
THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

• A gradual transformation marking the change

from a pagan empire to a Christian empire
Factors leading to the downfall of the empire:

• Empire was too big & complex for 1 person to rule

Diocletian divided the empire – 2 coequal emperors titled Augustus,
assisted by a subordinate Caesar designated as successors
• Impact of Christianity
dramatically transforming the empire from within
• Other reasons:
Economy – inflation, unemployment...
Internal – political corruption, decline in moral & values...
Health – lead poisoning, alcohol, disease...
• By 3rd Century, the Empire was even more in the dumps
• The Western Empire fell with an invasion from the northern Germanic Tribes
The era of of barbarism known as the Dark Ages prevailed
•The Eastern Section (Byzantium Empire) stayed intact over a thousand years
longer, till the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Turks.
Constantinople was renamed by the Turks Istanbul, which is the name it
bears to this day.
 ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY

• Established as the state religion of the Empire

under the successors of Constantine The Great with
the vision to conquer in the name of Christ

When he won the war, of his gratitude to the God of the

Christianity has been much
Christians,
tolerated throughout the empire
When he married the sister of Augustus Licinus, he
secured his protection to the Christians
in the East
• Constantine as the first Christian
Emperor relocated the capital of to
Byzantium, renamed Constantinople The Constantine Arch, Constantinople
 EARLY CHRISTIAN PRACTICE
consists part of the late Roman Empire architecture

Synagogue as place of worship

Synagogue, Dura Europos, Syria

Christian Community House

Christian house-church, Dura Europos, Syria

The baptistery
 Underground Catacombs

underground burial chambers

of the early Christians in and
near Rome

consisting of tunnels and rooms with recesses dug out

for coffins and tombs
Shift from Greco-Roman to Byzantine style
marked a religious change of heart
Requirements: accommodation of large numbers of
converts & enclosed spaces that would facilitate
hearing of the spoken word & chanted psalms (songs)
Ancient temple forms were unsuitable:

PAGANISM CHRISTIANITY
Architectural design focused Emphasis on interior
on external appearance

Ceremonies took place Need to have clear

outside, in front the separation between the
temples faithful & nonfaithful

Temple was a place for the

sacrifices
Constantine selected the BASILICA as a basis for church design:

devised for public gatherings

symbolic meaning of equitable administration of earthly justice

axial in spatial organization –

the axis served to focus attention on the altar.
 Roman Basilicas
• For public gatherings

Basilica of
Constantine
Function as
audience halls as
part of palace
The Trajan Basilica Ulpia
complexes
Converted to the
function as a
Christian church
Roman Basilicas

Basilica of Maxentius
 Christian Basilicas

• Adapted directly from the Roman

Basilica
• Included colonnades of pillars
forming 1 or 2 narrow aisles on the
sides & a timber trussed roof
• At one end of the longitudinal axis,
attention focused on a semicircular apse
with an altar
Early Christian Basilicas

St. John Lateran Church

-Possibly within a month of Constantine’s defeat of Maxentius,
work began on the church
- the official seat of the Bishop of Rome, St John
- was 333 1/3 Roman feet long (longer than a football field
- suggest the dramatic transformation Christianity underwent
- original church was replaced by a 17th & 18th century building
Early Christian Basilicas

Old St. Peter’s Basilica,

Rome
Early Christian Basilicas

Sant’ Apollinaire Nuovo, Ravenna

Other building types

• The royal tombs & the pagan

‘heroa’, a building commemorating the
deeds of a divinity of the deceased
member of a prominent family
• Were of a centralized plan – round,
octagonal or square
• was used for:
‘martyria’ – structures marking
the place of suffering or death of a
martyr
mausoleums of prominent
Christians
baptisteries, where
symbolically believers died to the
old life & rose renewed from the
water
Santa Costanza, Rome
- a mausoleum built for
Constantine’s daughter,
Constantina
Split between the East & West
Split between the East & West

East : Circular West : Basilica

• Centralized church (Byzantine) • Linear church
• Mark specially sacred spot or to • Congregational worship
house a tomb or baptistery • To include choir, seats for the faithful
• Choir, seats for the faithful are • Horizontal
banned
• Intimacy, mystery, silence & semi-
darkness preferred
• Round, octagonal or square
• Vertical accent of a dome

• Common Elements : internal appearances were the focus

& were decorated with mosaics & coloured marble;
exteriors were exceedingly plain
Hagia Sophia, AD 532-537
• Built by Justinian
• centralized building on a large scale
• designed by 2 Greek philosophers,
Anthemios & Isidoros – known for their
studies in theoretical geometry; they could
design the kind of ethereal building that
Justinian wanted
• Rectangle, the centre was a square
marked by 4 massive piers, capped by a
dome on pendentives.
• Centralized but axial: along the principle
axis the inner square was extended in
deep semicircular apses rising to half-
dome vaults below the main dome, & these
apses were further extended by barrel-
vaulted extensions on the axis
Hagia Sophia, AD 532-537

•Physical representation of the union of

empire & church – the cube surmounted
by a dome was a model of the universe to
the Byzantine concept; the earth covered
with the dome of heaven.
• All seems in motion, surfaces curving &
intersecting, bathed with a mystical light.
• Interior is awashed with light from
hundreds of windows, reflecting from
marbled walls & mosaics – the base of the
dome was pierced with 40 windows
• In 1453 the Ottoman Turks conquered
Constantinople & made the church a
mosque (hence the 4 minarets)
 In the provinces
• For a 1000 years, Byzantine style pioneered in Constantinople exerted a
powerful influence throughout Europe

Basilica of San Marco, Venice, Italy

SUMMARY
As Roman Empire was transformed into a Christian empire:
• Churches & other religious buildings
emerged as the preeminent architecture,
other buildings & residences faded into
relative obscurity
• Churches were internalized, their exteriors
deliberately restrained in spatial modeling,
detail & color
• Artistic focus shifted to the building’s
interior, on creating a mystic image of
heaven that was the very opposite of the
architecture of the world outside
• The art & architecture reflects differences
between the Roman Catholic religion which
develops in the Western Roman Empire &
the Eastern Orthodox religion which thrived
in the East, in the Byzantium Empire.