Evolution Of Church Architecture From Early

Christian To Gothic Period

➢ Early Christian Architecture created for the Christian Church in
approximately the first 600 years after the time of Christ particularly in Italy
and the western Mediterranean area.
➢ This period from 300 AD t0 750 AD was significant for the development of
Byzantine art and architecture.
➢ Christian art was restricted to the decoration of the hidden places of
Christian worship, such as catacombs and titular, private houses used for
secret religious meetings.

➢ 300 AD-800 AD EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE

➢ 800 AD-1200 AD ROMANESQUE
➢ 1200 AD-1400 AD GOTHIC
➢ 1400 AD-1700 AD RENAISSANCE

➢ Early Christian churches modeled on Roman basilicas, used old columns.

➢ Early Christian architecture occureed around Rome and in areas around
Rome.
➢ Columns are other architectural feature as well as fine sculptures and
mosaics from other building were incorporated into other basilican
churches of new faith.

Building Material And Construction System

I. Plans The Early Christians followed the basilican model for their new
churches. May also have used old Roman halls, baths, dwelling-houses, and
even pagan temples as places of worship. An isolated circular church, used
as a baptistery, was generally attached to the chief Basilica or cathedral.
 II. Wall These were still constructed according to Roman methods of using
rubble or concrete, faced with plaster, brick, or stone. Mosaic decoration
was added internally, and sometimes also externally on west facades. Little
regard was paid to external architectural effect.
III. Openings Arcades, doors, and windows were spanned by a semicircular
arch. Doors, windows, and niches were generally spanned by a semicircular
arch the use of the lintel being dispensed with.The window openings were
small those to the nave being in the clerestory high in the nave wall above
the aisle roof.
IV. Roofs Timber roofs covered the central nave, and only simple forms of
construction, such as king and queen post trusses, were employed. The
narrower side aisles were occasionally vaulted, and the Apse was usually
domed and lined with beautiful glass mosaics, which formed a fitting
background to the sanctuary. These roofs were ceiled in some ornamental
manner, the decoration of a visible framework.
V. Columns Differ both in design and size, often taken from earlier Roman
buildings. It was natural that early Christian builders should use materials
and ornament of the pagan Romans. Used Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian,
or Composite from ancient Roman buildings.
VI. Floors The pavements of colored marbles in geometric patterns added
much to the rich effect of the interiors. These pavements were formed
largely of slices from the old Roman porphyry columns, which were worked
into designs by connecting bands of geometrical inlay on a field of white
marble.
VII. Ornamentation The introduction of color gave richness and
glimmering mystery to interiors. The mosaics which were the principal form
of interior ornament, lined the domed apses generally represented Christ
surrounded by apostles and saints with all those symbolic emblems. Usually
made of glass.
Characterstics of Early Christian Church
Building
The church building as we know it grew out of a number of features of the
Ancient Roman period:
1. The house church
2. The atrium
3. The basilica
4. The bema
5. The mausoleum: centrally-planned building
6. The cruciform ground plan: Latin or Greek cross

1. THE HOUSE CHURCH

The first house church is where the disciples of Jesus met together in the
"Upper Room" of a house. For the first three centuries of the church,
known as Early Christianity, Christians typically met in homes, if only
because intermittent persecution (before the Edict of Milan in 313) did not
allow the erection of public church buildings.
2. THE ATRIUM
When early Christian community began to build churches they drew on one
particular feature of the houses that preceded them, the atrium or
courtyard with the colonnade surrounding it.
3. THE BASILICA
The basilica is a rectangular early Christian or medieval church, usally
having a nave with clerestories, two or four aisle one or more vaulted apse
and a timber roof.
A. Propylaeum- the entrance building of a sacred precinct, whether
church or imperial palace.
B. Atrium- in early Christian, Byzantine, and medieval architecture, the
forecourt of a church; as a rule enveloped by four colonnaded
porticoes.
C. Narthex- the entrance hall or porch proceding the nave of a church.
D. Nave- the great central space in a church. In longitudinal churches, it
extends from the entrance to the apse (or only to the crossing if the
church has one) and is usually flanked by side aisles.
E. Side Aisle- one of the corridors running parallel to the nave of a
church and separated from it by an arcade or colonnade.
F. Crossing- the area in a church where the transept and the nave
intersect.
G. Transept- in a cruciform church, the whole arm set at right angles to
the nave. Note that the transept appears infrequently in Early
Christian churches. Old St. Peter's is one of the few examples of a
basilica with a transept from this period. The transept would not
become a standard component of the Christian church until the
Carolingian period.
 H. Apse- a recess, sometimes rectangular but usually semicircular, in
the wall at the end of a Roman basilica or Christian church. The apse
in the Roman basilica frequently contained an image of the emperor
and was where the magistrate dispensed laws. In the Early Christian
basilica, the apses contained the "cathedra" or throne of the bishop
and the altar.

4. THE BEMA the term can refer to the raised area in the sanctuary. A bema
was an elevated platformused as an orator’s podium in ancient times.
5. THE MAUSOLEUM Monumental form of a tomb. The term has been
employed for large monumental and stately tomb, usally erected for
distinguished or prominent individuals.
6. GREEK AND LATIN CROSS the Greek cross churches has four arms
having the same length. Whereas a latin cross has the arm of entrance
longer than the other arms.

Byzantine Buildings

❖ Catacombs are ancient human made subterranean passageways for burial

or protection. Catacombs usally domed and enriched with lavishly
decorated mosaics.

❖ Basilican Churches

The Latin word basilica, was originally used to describe a Roman public
building (as in Greece, mainly a tribunal), usually located in the forum of a
Roman town. In Hellenistic cities, public basilicas appeared in the 2nd
century BC. After the Roman Empire became officially Christian, the term
came by extension to refer to a large and important church that has been
given special ceremonial rites by the Pope. The Roman basilica was a large
roofed hall erected for transacting business and disposing of legal
matters.The central aisle tended to be wide and was higher than the
flanking aisles, so that light could penetrate through the clerestory
windows. It is a long rectangle two stories high, with ranks of arch-headed
windows one above the other, without aisles (no mercantile exchange in
 this imperial basilica) and at the far end, beyond a huge arch, the apse in
which Constantine held state.

❖ CENTRALLY PLANNED CHURCHES

A centrally planned church is a church with the altar at the center, and was
often used for baptisteries or tombs. The Church of Santa Costanza is an
example of a centrally planned church, featuring a central altar surrounded
by an ambulatory. The ambulatory is made up of paired Corinthian
columns. The Church of Santa Costanza was originally covered in elaborate
mosaics and marble.

Byzantine Art and Architecture

Byzantine architecture is a style of building that flourished under the rule of
Roman Emperor Justinian between A.D. 527 and 565. Byzantine architects were
eclectic, at first drawing heavily on Roman temple features. Their combination of
the basilica and symmetrical central-plan (circular or polygonal) religious
structures resulted in the characteristic Byzantine Greek-cross-plan church, with a
square central mass and four arms of equal length. The most distinctive feature
was the domed roof. To allow a dome to rest above a square base, either of two
devices was used: the squinch (an arch in each of the corners of a square base
that transforms it into an octagon) or the pendentive.

➢ Byzantine emperors used art and architecture to signal their strength and
importance. Often, depictions of the emperor were less naturalistic and
instead used compositional clues such as size, placement, and color to
underscore his importance. Additionally, the emperor was often visually
associated with Christ, making it clear that his power was divinely ordained
and, thus, secure.
➢ The architectural surfaces of Byzantine churches were covered in mosaics
and frescoes, creating opulent and magnificent interiors that glittered in
the candle and lamp light. In building such elaborate and seemingly
miraculous structures, the goal was to create the sense of a heavenly realm
here on earth, a goal that later Gothic architecture fully embraced.
 ➢ The early Middle Ages was also a time of experimentation with building
methods and materials. Clerestory windows became a popular way for
natural light and ventilation to enter an otherwise dark and smokey
building.

➢ Eg: The Hagia Sophia

Artist: Isidorus of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles

Romanesque Architecture
Romanesque architecture, architectural style current in Europe from about the
mid-11th century to the advent of Gothic architecture. A fusion of Roman,
Carolingian and Ottonian, Byzantine, and local Germanic traditions, it was a
product of the great expansion of monasticism in the 10th–11th century. Larger
churches were needed to accommodate the numerous monks and priests, as well
as the pilgrims who came to view saints’ relics.

These are three of their most notable characteristics:

➢ Imposing size: The massive buildings dictated by this architectural style are
meant to intimidate and inspire. Towers with octagonal spires reach toward
the heavens, and stone buttresses extend off the buildings to give their
thick walls even more girth. All this immensity makes a study in contrast
with the small, stained-glass windows depicting biblical scenes ranging from
the birth of Christ to the Last Judgment in the Romanesque art style.
➢ Cathedral floor plans: Most Romanesque cathedrals were drawn up
according to floor plans in the cruciform shape of a Latin cross. These
schematics designated many stations with archaic names—the apse (a
dome or half dome at the front of the auditorium, usually featuring
religious art), ambulatory (a walkway), tympanum (a semicircular area,
usually enclosing a sculpture, located above a door or window), transept (a
horizontal section of a cathedral that went across the ambulatory to form a
cross), and more—to fulfill specific purposes in medieval church services.
 Romanesque sculptures depicting biblical scenes were sometimes etched
into the walls to encourage a greater sense of reverence.
➢ Round, vaulting arches: Perhaps one of the most notable points of
departure between Romanesque and Gothic architecture involves the
former’s rounded arches. Long hallways of this architectural style are
usually encased in semicircular barrel vaults—a long series of arches placed
next to each other. When barrel vaults are combined into a square
formation, they’re known as groin vaults. Gothic architects departed from
this Romanesque feature in their preference for pointed arches, sometimes
referred to as ribbed vaults. In all cases, these arcading—or successive—
arches were supported by columns that wouldn’t have felt too out of place
in ancient Rome. While many churches continued to use barrel vaulting,
during the Romanesque period, architects developed the ribbed vault,
which allowed vaults to be lighter and higher, thus allowing for more
windows on the upper level of the structure. The ribbed vault would be
more fully developed and utilized during the subsequent Gothic period, but
important early examples in the 11 th century set the precedent.
➢ eg: Durham cathedral, leaning tower of pisa