Byzantine

UNIVERSITY OF BAHRAIN
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING & ARCHITECTURE
BSc. in ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM
SUMMER 2012
ARCG 211– HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE I
A WORLD HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

Marian Moffett
Michael Fazio
Lawrence Wodehouse
6. Byzantine Architecture
DR ABDURRAHMAN MOHAMED
 Byzantium is said to have been founded in the seventh
century B.C., and was a Greek colony as early as the
fourth century B.C.
 Byzantine architecture is that which was developed at
Byzantium on the removal of the capital from Rome to
that city. It includes not only the buildings in Byzantium
but also those which were erected under its influence, as
at Ravenna and Venice, also in Greece, Russia, and
elsewhere.
 The Byzantine style was carried on until Ottoman
conquest in A.D. 1453, when it became the capital of the
Ottoman Empire.
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER.
 One characteristic of much Byzantine architecture is a
clear preference for domes on both basilican and centrally
planned churches as symbolic of the heavenly sphere,
complementary to the earthly realm of floor and walls
below.
 The general architectural character depends on the
development of the dome, induced by the adoption of
circular and polygonal plans for churches, tombs and
baptisteries.
 This is in contrast with the Romanesque style, which
developed the vault in Western and Northern Europe
 Although no line can be stated as separating distinctively
the Early Christian and Byzantine styles, yet as already
stated the Basilican type is characteristic of the former
and the domed church with pendentives of the latter.
 The core of the wall was generally of concrete, as in the
Roman period, but the manner in which the bricks of the
casing were arranged contributed greatly to the
decoration of the exterior.
 They were not always laid horizontally, but sometimes
obliquely, sometimes in the chevron or herring-bone
pattern, and in many other forms of similar design, giving
great richness and variety to the facades.
 Domes were then placed over square apartments, their
bases being brought to a circle by means of "pendentives“
Early Byzantine churches
 The church of Saint Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna,
constructed under Justinian's patronage from 532 to 549,
is an example of a wooden-roofed basilica without
transepts (Fig. ).
 In the Century after its construction, the apse floor was
raised to permit access to the crypt tomb of Apollinaris.
http://www.google.com.bh/imgres?imgurl=http
 S. Apollinaire in
Classe, Ravenna,
532-49.
 The innovative domes seen in Justinian's churches are
notable contributions to architectural history.
 Hagia Sophia (332-37) is one of the great buildings of the
world and is without question the masterpiece of
Byzamine archiltecturc (Figs.).
 Its ardlitects are Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus. Of
Mjletus. Both were mathematicians and scientists skilled
in mechanics, geometry, and engineering.
 In plan it is a basilica with a dome above the central
space, complemented by two semidomes along the
longitudinal axis.
 Its 107-foot- diameter central dome, supported on
pendentives, rises 180 feet above the floor and is flanked
by two lower semidomes of the same diameter, a clear
span of nearly 250 feet.
 Aisles with galleries above range on either side, while a
colonnaded atrium (no longer extant) and groin-vaulted
double narthex precede the church proper.
 The necessary supports of the dome do not intrude on the
internal space making it floating effortlessly above the
billowing interior volumes. Nothing could be farther from
the actual case. While the brick used does constitute a
relatively light construction material and the vaults are
amazingly thin to minimize both thrust and weight, the
size of the building means that the gravity forces are
large.
 The forty windows at the base of the dome are set
between buttresses that stabilize the junction of do me and
pendentives.
CENTRALLY PLANNED BYZANTINE
CHURCHES
 Byzantine fondness for dome-building and
contributed to the development of the most
characteristic Byzanti ne churches, which had
circular or Greek-cross plans.
 Churches of S. Sergius and Bacchus (527-36) in
Constantinople and S. Vitale (538-48) in Ravenna
illustrate two variations on the theme of central
plans.
 S. Sergius and Bacchus (Fig.) is essentially a
domed octagon surrounded by aisles and galleries
encased in a square,
 S. Vitale's octagonal dome is echoed by octagonal
galleries and aisles.
 The strong centralizing tendencies of both
churches are countered somewhat by apsidal
projections opposite the narthex side, where the
interior space is more fluid.
 In S. Sergius and Bacchus, the eight piers
supporting the dome are interspersed with two
columns, set alternately in semicircular and
straight alignments, so that the domed area
penetrates the surrounding spaces.

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UNIVERSITY OF BAHRAIN

A WORLD HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

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