Course 06: Paleo Christian and Byzantine architecture

Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 326, following the conversion
of Emperor Constantine.

He published the Edict of Milan, making Christianity legal, and became the first Christian
emperor.

This new religion needed buildings to match its new position, not only to mark its notoriety, but
also because the old Roman temples were too cramped.

Early churches were generally simple on the outside and functional in their design, where the
focus was on the act of Christian worship.

Shaken by various foreign invasions and the decline of central power in Rome, the Roman
Empire was divided into two: the Eastern Roman Empire and the Western Roman Empire.

The Byzantine Empire became the eastern part of the Roman Empire, with Byzantium as its
capital.

Characteristics of early Christian and Byzantine architecture Early Christian architects built
their churches on the model of Roman civil buildings, which served as meeting places.

In fact, for several centuries, church architecture did not stray far from the forms used in Roman
art.

Christian architecture

Roman architecture:

• Romanesque architecture in the West (Western Europe)

• Byzantine architecture in the Orient (Eastern Europe)

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Paléochrétien Church types

All the churches had an almost perfectly symmetrical plan

However, the spiritual center did not always coincide with the architectural center

Some shots were very elongated, while others had a more balanced length/width ratio.

The shape of the floor plan therefore had a very strong meaning in the sense that the elongated
space is for prayer, while the central space is the center of truth. Thus, we can classify churches
of this era according to two forms:

Thus, we can classify churches of this era according to two forms:

Basilical plan

This type of plan consists of:

• The Narthex: the entrance to the church in the form of a porch.

• The Nave: the central area where the faithful gather.

• The church consists of a central nave flanked by side aisles (bas-côtés). It is separated
from them by rows of columns (a colonnade).

• The transept: is a kind of transverse nave that intersects the main nave at right angles.

• The apse: is the semicircular part at the end of the main nave.

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Generally speaking, the basilica plan took the form of a rectangular hall, divided lengthwise
into a central nave and two (or four) side aisles.

The central nave was roofed and lit by a high clerestory.

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Centered-plan church

The rectangular basilica was not the only form adopted for early Christian churches

The centered-plan church had a circular, polygonal or square base

This central room was also lit by skylights, thanks to its great height, and topped by a dome
covered by a conical roof

With the new centered plans, the nave is highlighted and becomes one of the stages of the
procession, which the congregation observes from the aisles, galleries and narthex.

The Byzantine central plan

The centered plan spread throughout the Byzantine Empire because, unlike the basilical plan,
it included a central space for the celebration of imperial worship, which the Byzantine
emperors sought to introduce into Christian masses.

However, the Byzantines did more than simply copy the Palaeochristian central plan

They managed to develop it into a more complex plan, however, according to orthodox
principles.

Square-plan church:

seen as a symbol of imperial power, the square earth is dominated by the vault of heaven.

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This was the first form adopted by the Byzantines.

Inscribed Greek cross church:

It embodies the Byzantine formal solution par excellence

It's a square building, inscribed with a cross of equal-length branches covered by barrel vaults.
The center, i.e. the crossing, is topped by a dome.

Situation of the Byzantine Empire

Byzantium was an ancient Greek colony, located at the entrance to the Bosphorus under part of
present-day Istanbul.

The city was rebuilt by Constantine I and renamed Constantinople in 330.

The founding of Constantinople sets in motion a dynamic of development in the eastern

provinces

New towns are created and others rebuilt

Standardization of plans with reproduction of the same buildings, squares and streets

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Landscape and plan

The geographical location of the new capital is significant as a symbol of the synthesis of the
old empire and the new pact between Rome and Jerusalem.

It was situated at the meeting point of Asia and Europe, where not only the West and East meet,
but also the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, forming a north-south axis.

Constantinople is thus located at the intersection of the great cadro and the decamus of the
new empire, where it seems to stand between heaven and earth.

Although it was built on the seven hills, like ancient Rome,

The buildings constructed under Constantine before and after the consecration in 330, were
still based on Roman models, but later a different kind of architecture, demanded by the city's
situation, was to prevail. From the middle of the 6th century, under the emperor Justinian, dates
the beginning of the development that gave the city its characteristic profile, dominated by the
innumerable domes of the churches, above all that of Saint Sophia.

Although Constantine reproduced many of the structural properties of ancient Rome in his new
capital,

The aim was to express the other character of the sacred enclosure, which defined itself as such
through symbolic motifs such as portals flanked by celestial towers and domes.

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Octagonal or Greek cross-shaped, covered by a central dome. During this period, the East
also witnessed early Christian art (Paleo-Christian), with numerous basilica-type churches.

They're all covered by simple frameworks. With a few variations, this type of construction
spread to Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia and Anatolia

It was in these last two regions that, in accordance with ancient architectural traditions, these
buildings were covered with barrel vaults and domes, creating the model for two architectural
styles destined to flourish: Romanesque architecture and Byzantine architecture proper

Characteristics of early Christian and Byzantine architecture

• To build their churches, early Christian architects modelled themselves on the Roman
civil buildings that served as meeting places.

• The Christian Basilica, for example, was a further development of the Roman basilica,
with a few modifications.

• paleo Christian and Byzantine building techniques were therefore based on the
Roman heritage. However, the classical orders were used more freely than in the ancient
world

• What's more, Christian builders did not faithfully adopt Roman ornamentation, so that
their temples would be more in keeping with their cult.

• The church was to be a closed place, neglecting the outside world.

• Early Christian basilicas had a very simple exterior.

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 • The Roman quest for monumentality and grandeur was not perpetuated.

• And although the exterior was bare, the interior was dazzling and bursting with
color.

• Each space was richly decorated: walls and columns covered in marble, gilded
frescoes and mosaics.

DECORATION

• Decorating with mosaics

• Gilded mosaics

• The horseshoe arch

• Byzantine cubic capital

• Freer use of the classic order

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 • The basilica plan remained predominant in the western part of the empire, while in its
eastern part the trend was towards the use of the centered plan

• The openings are small, narrow, semicircular and subordinate to the surfaces in
which they are contained.

• Roofs were covered with stone domes and vaults

• Byzantium develops the spatial capacity of the vault and dome by increasing their
spatial possibilities (Saint Sophia in Constantinople).

• Mixed stone walls alternating with brick beds created decorative effects, saving on the
expense of exterior cladding.

Architectural features specific to the Byzantine period

the Romans built domes on circular spaces, to facilitate the transmission of weight, Byzantine
architects developed devices enabling circular domes to be placed on square-plan structures.

In fact, it was thanks to new techniques that they were able to switch from square to circular
planes.

Dome on pendentives.
The pendant is a spherical triangle bridging the gap between a circular dome and a square base.
It connects the two arches forming an angle with the part of the dome overlooking the void.

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Dome on squinches
A little less sophisticated than pendants, trompes have a similar function, namely to transform
the square into an octagon. The trompe is a small corbelled vault placed at the corners of a space
covered by a cupola. It is placed at the corner of the square structure to round it off, thus
ensuring the transition between the ground plane and that of the dome.

Cut stone: disappeared around the 6th century, under Justinian, in favor of a "softer" material
used by the Persians: brick.

Bricks are used to build domes. Bricks in the shape of a bottomless wine bottle are used, and
fitted together with fine mortar to bind them.

This technique doesn't require wooden formwork as with massive vaults, nor beams as with
Roman frameworks.

The Byzantine prototype

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Saint Sophia is essentially a church with a central plan; the influence of the basilica is only
evident in the length of the central nave.

Construction:

• Built in 5 years between 532 and 537

• Commissioned by the Emperor Justinian 1st

• Architect: Anthemios de Tralles and Isidore de Millet

• History

• Hagia sophia (holy wisdom) or divine wisdom from Greek

• With the schism between East and West, it became an Orthodox church

• 1453 transformed into a mosque by the Ottomans

• 1935 converted into a museum

The dome

▪ A major architectural innovation

▪ The weight is supported by pendants (the first use of this construction technique).

▪ Pendant features

▪ Provides a transition between the square shape of the pillars and the circular shape of
the dome

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Interior:
Polychrome marble, Green-red-white color, Gold mosaic.
Exterior:
Simply plastered with stucco to give clarity to the volume of the dome and vaults.
Icons
were painted pictures on planks of limewood,
The use of gold or silver filigree and the inlaying of precious stones and pearls further
embellished these icons.

The frescoes or wall paintings contributed to the knowledge of scenes from imperial life, as
well as to the teaching of sacred episodes from the Bible or the Gospels.

Polychrome marble paving.

Interiors are often decorated with gold-ground mosaics and polychrome marble paving.

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