Byzantine Churches in Constantinople: Their History and Architecture — John Shaqi
Byzantine Churches in Constantinople: Their History and ArchitectureVan Millingen, Alexander
Philosophy
Byzantine Churches in Constantinople: Their History and Architecture
Van Millingen, Alexander
Architecture, Byzantine; Church architecture -- Turkey -- Istanbul; Church buildings -- Turkey -- Istanbul
III. The Cross plan. Here we have a square central area covered by a
dome, from which extend four vaulted arms constituting a cross. This
type also assumes two distinct forms:
(1) Buildings in which the ground plan is cruciform, so that the cross
shows externally at the ground level. Churches of this class are usually
small, and were probably sepulchral chapels rather than churches for
public worship. A good example is the tomb of Galla Placidia at Ravenna.
(2) In the second form of the Cross church the cross is enclosed within
a square, and appears only above the roofs of the angle chambers. An
example is seen in the late Roman tomb at Kusr en Nûeijîs in Eastern
Palestine. In this instance the central square area is covered with a
dome on continuous pendentives; the four arms have barrel-vaults, and
the angles of the cross are occupied by small chambers, which bring the
ground-plan to the square. The building is assigned to the second
century, and shows that true though continuous pendentives were known at
an early date[10] (Fig. 8).
Another example is the Praetorium at Musmiyeh, in Syria,[11] which
probably dates from between 160 and 169 A.D. At some later time it was
altered to a church, and by a curious foreshadowing of the late
Byzantine plan the walls of the internal cross have entirely disappeared
from the ground-plan. The dome rests on four columns placed at the inner
angles of the cross, and the vaulted cross arms rest on lintels spanning
the space between the columns and the outer walls.
From these three types of building are derived the various schemes on
which the churches of the Byzantine Empire were planned.
Of the basilican form the only example in Constantinople that retains
its original plan is S. John the Baptist of the Studion (p. 56), erected
_c._ 463 A.D.
The church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus (p. 70) and the baptistery of S.
Sophia (p. 78) represent respectively the two varieties of the octagonal
plan. In the former the dome rests on piers surrounded by an ambulatory;
in the latter the dome rests upon the outer walls of the buildings. Both
are foundations of Justinian the Great.
Of the Cross church plan showing the cross externally at the ground
level no example survives in the city. But at least one church of that
form was seen at Constantinople in the case of the church of the Holy
Apostles. This was essentially a mausoleum, built originally by
Constantine the Great and reconstructed by Justinian to contain the
sarcophagi of the sovereigns and the patriarchs of New Rome.[12]
The church of S. Mark at Venice was built on the plan of the Holy
Apostles. It is a cruciform church with aisles, but the galleries which
might have been expected above them are omitted. The central dome rests
on four piers, and four smaller domes cover the arms.
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