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
Professor Strzygowski gives examples of cross-planned cells in the
catacombs of Palmyra,[13] and in many Eastern rock tombs.[14] Such cross
plans are found also in the Roman catacombs. These subterranean chapels,
of course, do not show the external treatment, yet there can be little
doubt that the external cross plan was originally sepulchral, and owes
its peculiar system of planning to that fact. On the other hand, it was
adopted in such churches as S. Mark's at Venice and in the French
examples of Périgord for aesthetic or traditional reasons.
In passing now to a consideration of the distinct forms developed from
these pre-Byzantine types of church building, the classification adopted
by Professor Strzygowski may be followed. In his _Kleinasien_ he has
brought forward a series of buildings which show the manner in which a
dome was fitted to the oblong basilica, producing the domed basilica
(_Kuppelbasilica_), an evolution which he regards as Hellenistic and
Eastern. In contrast to this, Strzygowski distinguishes the domed cross
church (_Kreuzkuppelkirche_), of which S. Theodosia in Constantinople
(p. 170) is the typical example and which is a Western development. A
comparison of the two forms is of great importance for the study of
certain Constantinople churches.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--KASR IBN WARDAN (Strzygowski).]
The domed basilica, as the name indicates, is a basilica with nave and
aisles, in which a square bay in the centre of the nave is covered by a
dome on pendentives. To north and south, within the arches supporting
the dome, appear the nave and gallery arcades of the basilica; and as
the galleried basilica is a usual Eastern form galleries are usual in
the domed basilica. As seen from the central area, therefore, the north
and south dome arches are filled in with arcades in two stories, and the
side aisles and galleries are covered with barrel vaults running
parallel to the axis of the church. At the west end a gallery over the
narthex may unite the two side galleries. At Kasr ibn Wardan, instanced
by Strzygowski as a typical domed basilica,[15] there is such a western
gallery (Fig. 1). According to Strzygowski the domed basilica is older
than the fifth century.
The domed basilica remains always an oblong building, and whilst the two
sides to north and south are symmetrical, the western end retains the
basilican characteristics--it has no gallery or arcade communicating
with the central area. The narthex communicates with the nave by doors,
and if a gallery is placed above it, both narthex and gallery are
covered by barrel vaults.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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