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WESTERN ARCHITECTURE 1

A HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHITECTURE IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

PREHISTORIC TO ROMANESQUE PERIOD

NEOLITHIC ERA

Neolithic Architecture

Architectural advances are an important part of the Neolithic period (10,000-2000 BC), during which some of the major innovations of human history occurred. The domestication of plants and animals, for example, led to both new economics and a new relationship between people and the world, an increase in community size and permanence, a massive development of material culture, and new social and ritual solutions to enable people to live together in these communities.

New styles of individual structures and their combination into settlements provided the buildings required for the new lifestyle and economy, and were also an essential element of change. Although many dwellings from all prehistoric periods and some clay models of dwellings have been uncovered, enabling faithful reconstructions, they seldom include elements that might relate them to art. Some exceptions are provided by wall decorations and by finds that equally apply to Neolithic and Chalcolithic rites and art.

In South and Southwest Asia, Neolithic cultures appear soon after 10,000 BC, initially in the Levant (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B) and from there spread eastwards and westwards. There are early Neolithic cultures in Southeast Anatolia, Syria, and Iraq by 8000 BC; food-producing societies first appear in Southeast Europe by 7000 BC and in Central Europe by c. 5500 BC (among the earliest cultural complexes are Starčevo-Koros (Cris), Linearbandkeramik, and Vinča).

Neolithic settlements and towns include:

Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, ca. 9,000 B.C.

Jericho in the Levant, Neolithic from around 8,350 B.C., arising from the earlier Epipaleolithic Natufian culture

Nevali Cori in Turkey, ca. 8,000 B.C.

Çatalhöyük in Turkey, 7,500 B.C.

Mehrgarh in Pakistan, 7,000 BC

Knap of Howar and Skara Brae, the Orkney Islands, Scotland, from 3,500 B.C.

3,000 settlements of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture, some with populations up to 15,000 residents, flourished in present-day Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine from 5,400 to 2,800 B.C..

Göbekli Tepe (Turkey), c.9500-8000 B.C  

Wooden houses (Hemudu, China), 5000-4500 B.C.   

Skara Brae (Scotland), 3200-2200 B.C.

MESOPOTAMIA

Architecture of Mesopotamia

 Mesopotamia is most noted for its construction of mud-brick buildings and ziggurats, which occupied prominent places in each city and consisted of an artificial mound, often rising in huge steps, surmounted by a temple. The mound was no doubt to elevate the temple to a commanding position in what was otherwise a flat river valley. The great city of Uruk had a number of religious precincts, containing many temples larger and more ambitious than any buildings previously known.

The word ziggurat is an anglicised form of the Akkadian ziqqurratum, the name given to the solid, stepped towers of mud brick. It derives from the verb zaqaru ("to be high"). The buildings are described as resembling mountains that link Earth and heaven. The Ziggurat of Ur, excavated by Leonard Woolley, is 64 by 46 meters at the base and originally stood at some 12 meters in height, with three stories. It was built under Ur-Nammu (circa 2100 B.C.) and rebuilt under Nabonidus (555–539 B.C.), when it was raised to probably seven stories.

Assyrian palaces had a large public court with a suite of apartments on the east side and a series of large banqueting halls on the south side. This became the traditional plan for Assyrian palaces, built and adorned to glorify the king. Massive amounts of ivory furniture pieces were found in some palaces.

Dur-Sharrukin ("Fortress of Sargon"; Arabic: دور شروكين, Syriac: ܕܘܪ ܫܪܘ ܘܟܢ), present-day Khorsabad, was the Assyrian capital during the reign of Sargon II. Khorsabad is a village in northern Iraq, 15 km northeast of Mosul. The great city was entirely built in the decade preceding 706 BC. After the unexpected death of Sargon in battle, the capital was shifted 20 km south to Nineveh.

Nineveh was the capital of the powerful ancient Assyrian empire, located in modern-day northern Iraq. Sennacherib was the king of Assyria from 704–681 B.C. and was famous for his building projects. The rooms and courtyards of his Neo-Assyrian Southwest Palace at Nineveh were decorated with a series of detailed carved stone panels. Many of these stone panels are on display in the British Museum. The panels depict a variety of scenes, including the transport of huge, human-headed, winged bulls (lamassu) weighing up to 30 tons, intended for the palace's main entrances.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were famous as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  However, the gardens were, according to Stephanie Dalley, an Oxford University Assyriologist, located some 340 miles north of ancient Babylon in Nineveh, on the Tigris River by Mosul in modern Iraq.

ANCIENT EGYPT

Ancient Egyptian architecture

Modern imaginings of ancient Egypt are heavily influenced by the surviving traces of monumental architecture. Many formal styles and motifs were established at the dawn of the pharaonic state, around 3100 B.C. The most iconic Ancient Egyptian buildings are the pyramids, built during the Old and Middle Kingdoms (c.2600–1800 B.C.) as tombs for the pharaoh. However, there are also impressive temples, like the Karnak Temple Complex.

The Ancient Egyptians believed strongly in the afterlife. They also believed that, for their soul (known as ka) to live eternally in the afterlife, their bodies would have to remain intact. So, they had to create a way to protect the deceased from damage and grave robbers. This way, the mastaba was born. These were adobe structures with flat roofs that had underground rooms for the coffin, about 30 m underground. Imhotep, an ancient Egyptian priest and architect, was tasked with designing a tomb for the Pharaoh Djoser. For this, he placed five mastabas, one above the next, this way creating the first Egyptian pyramid, the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara (c.2667–2648 B.C.), which is a step pyramid. The first smooth-sided one was built by Pharaoh Sneferu, who ruled between c.2613 and 2589 B.C.

The most imposing example of a funerary tomb is the Great Pyramid of Giza, made for Sneferu's son, Khufu (c.2589–2566 B.C.), being the last surviving wonder of the ancient world and the largest pyramid in Egypt. The stone blocks used for pyramids were held together by mortar, and the entire structure was covered with highly polished white limestone, with its tops topped in gold. What we see today is actually the core structure of the pyramid. Inside, narrow passages led to the royal burial chambers. Despite being highly associated with Ancient Egypt, pyramids have been built by other civilisations to, like the Mayans.

Due to the lack of resources and a shift in power towards the priesthood, ancient Egyptians stepped away from pyramids, and temples became the focal point of cult construction. Just as the pyramids were spectacular and monumental, so were Ancient Egyptian temples. They evolved from small shrines made of perishable materials to large complexes, and by the New Kingdom (circa 1550–1070 B.C.) they had become massive stone structures consisting of halls and courtyards.

The temple represented a sort of 'cosmos' in stone, a copy of the original mound of creation on which the god could rejuvenate himself and the world. The entrance consisted of a twin gateway (pylon), symbolising the hills of the horizon. Inside, columned halls symbolised a primeval papyrus thicket. It was followed by a series of hallways of decreasing size, culminating in the sanctuary, where a statue of a god was placed. Back in ancient times, temples were painted in bright colours, mainly red, blue, yellow, green, orange, and white. Because of Egypt's desert climate, some parts of these painted surfaces were well preserved, especially in the interiors.

An architectural element specific to ancient Egyptian architecture is the cavetto cornice (a concave moulding), introduced by the end of the Old Kingdom. It was widely used to accentuate the top of almost every formal pharaonic building. Because of its frequent use, it later adorned many Egyptian Revival buildings and objects.

GREECE

Ancient Greek architecture

Ancient Greek architecture originated with the Greeks, or Hellenes, whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland, the Peloponnese, the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Anatolia and Italy, from about 900 BC until the 1st century AD, with the earliest surviving architectural works dating from around 600 BC.

Ancient Greek architecture is best known for its temples, many of which are found throughout the region, with the Parthenon, now as in ancient times, regarded as the prime example. Most remains are very incomplete ruins, but a number survive substantially intact, mostly outside modern Greece. The second important type of building to survive throughout the Hellenic world is the open-air theatre, with the earliest dating to around 525–480 BC. Other architectural forms still in evidence are the processional gateway (propylon), the public square (agora) surrounded by a storied colonnade (stoa), the town council building (bouleterion, the public monument, the monumental tomb (mausoleum), and the stadium.

Ancient Greek architecture is distinguished by its highly formalised characteristics, both of structure and decoration. This is particularly so in the case of temples where each building appears to have been conceived as a sculptural entity within the landscape, very often raised on high ground so that the elegance of its proportions and the effects of light on its surfaces might be viewed from all angles. Nikolaus Pevsner refers to "the plastic shape of the [Greek] temple [...] placed before us with a physical presence more intense, more alive than that of any later building".

The formal vocabulary of ancient Greek architecture, in particular the division of architectural style into three defined orders: the Doric Order, the Ionic Order, and the Corinthian Order, was to have a profound effect on Western architecture of later periods. The architecture of ancient Rome grew out of that of Greece and maintained its influence in Italy unbroken until the present day. From the Renaissance, revivals of Classicism have kept alive not only the precise forms and ordered details of Greek architecture, but also its concept of architectural beauty based on balance and proportion. The successive styles of Neoclassical and Greek Revival architecture closely followed and adapted ancient Greek styles.                                                                                                                                               

Unlike how most of us see them today, all Egyptian, Greek, and Roman sculptures and temples were initially painted in bright colours. They became white because of hundreds of years of neglect and vandalism provoked by Christians during the Early Middle Ages, who saw them as 'pagan' and believed that they promoted idolatry. Without a doubt, ancient Greek architecture, along with Roman architecture, is one of the most influential styles of all time.

Since the advent of the Classical Age in Athens, in the 5th century BC, the Classical way of building has been deeply woven into a Western understanding of architecture and, indeed, of civilization itself. From circa 850 B.C. to circa 300 A.D., ancient Greek culture flourished on the Greek mainland, on the Peloponnese, and on the Aegean islands. Five of the Wonders of the World were Greek: the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. However, Ancient Greek architecture is best known for its temples, many of which are found throughout the region, and the Parthenon is a prime example. Later, they will serve as inspiration for Neoclassical architects during the late 18th and 19th centuries.

The most well-known temples are the Parthenon and the Erechtheion, both on the Acropolis of Athens. Another type of important Ancient Greek building was the theatre. Both temples and theatres used a complex mix of optical illusions and balanced ratios. Ancient Greek temples usually consist of a base with continuous stairs of a few steps at each edge (known as the crepidoma), a cella (or naos) with a cult statue, columns, an entablature, and two pediments, one on the front and another on the back. By the 4th century B.C., Greek architects and stonemasons had developed a system of rules for all buildings, known as the orders: the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.

They are most easily recognised by their columns (especially by the capitals). The Doric column is stout and basic, the Ionic one is slimmer and has four scrolls (called volutes) at the corners of the capital, and the Corinthian column is just like the Ionic one, but the capital is completely different, being decorated with acanthus leaves and four scrolls. Besides the columns, the frieze varied according to the order. While the Doric one has metopes and triglyphs with guttae, the Ionic and Corinthian friezes consist of one big continuous band with reliefs. Besides the columns, the temples were highly decorated with sculptures, in the pediments, friezes, metopes, and triglyphs.

Ornaments used by Ancient Greek architects and artists include palmettes, vegetal or wave-like scrolls, lion mascarons (mostly on lateral cornices), dentils, acanthus leaves, bucrania, festoons, egg-and-dart, rais-de-cœur, beads, meanders, and acroteria at the corners of the pediments. Pretty often, ancient Greek ornaments are used continuously, as bands. They will later be used in Etruscan, Roman, and post-medieval styles that sought to revive Greco-Roman art and architecture, such as the Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical. Looking at the archaeological remains of ancient and medieval buildings, it is easy to perceive them as limestone and concrete in a grey-taupe tone and assume that ancient buildings were monochromatic.

However, architecture was polychromed in much of the Ancient and Medieval world. One of the most iconic Ancient buildings, the Parthenon (c. 447–432 B.C.) in Athens, had details painted with vibrant reds, blues, and greens. Besides ancient temples, Medieval cathedrals were never completely white. Most had coloured highlights on capitals and columns. This practice of colouring buildings and artworks was abandoned during the early Renaissance.

This is because Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance artists, including Michelangelo, promoted a colour palette inspired by ancient Greco-Roman ruins, which, due to neglect and constant decay during the Middle Ages, became white despite being originally colourful. The pigments used in the ancient world were delicate and especially susceptible to weathering. Without proper care, the colours exposed to rain, snow, dirt, and other factors vanished over time, and this way Ancient buildings and artworks became white, as they are today and as they were during the Renaissance.

ROMAN ERA

 Ancient Roman architecture

The architecture of ancient Rome has been one of the most influential in the world. Its legacy is evident throughout the medieval and early modern periods, and Roman buildings continue to be reused in the modern era in both New Classical and Postmodern architecture. It was particularly influenced by Greek and Etruscan styles. A range of temple types was developed during the republican years (509–27 BC), modified from Greek and Etruscan prototypes.

Wherever the Roman army conquered, it established towns and cities, spreading its empire and advancing its architectural and engineering achievements. While the most important works are to be found in Italy, Roman builders also found creative outlets in the western and eastern provinces, of which the best examples preserved are in modern-day North Africa, Turkey, Syria, and Jordan. Extravagant projects appeared, like the Arch of Septimius Severus in Leptis Magna (present-day Libya, constructed in 216 A.D.), with broken pediments on all sides, or the Arch of Caracalla in Tebessa (Thebeste in present-day Algeria, constructed in c. 214 A.D.), with paired columns on all sides, projecting entablatures and medallions with divine busts.

Because the empire was formed from multiple nations and cultures, some buildings were the result of combining Roman style with local traditions. An example is the Palmyra Arch (present-day Syria, constructed in c.212–220 A.D.), some of whose arches are embellished with a repeated band design consisting of four ovals within a circle around a rosette, which are of Eastern origin. Surpassing most civilisations of their time, the Romans developed new engineering skills, architectural techniques, and materials. Among the many Roman architectural achievements were domes, used in temples, baths, villas, palaces, and tombs.

The most well-known example is the Pantheon in Rome, the largest surviving Roman dome, which has a large oculus at its centre. Another important innovation is the rounded stone arch, used in arcades, aqueducts, and other structures.

Besides the Greek orders (Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian), the Romans invented two more. The Tuscan order was influenced by the Doric, but with unfluted columns and a simpler entablature without triglyphs or guttae, while the Composite was a mixed order combining the Ionic order's volute capitals with the Corinthian order's acanthus leaves. Between 30 B.C. and 15 B.C., the architect and engineer Marcus Vitruvius Pollio published a major treatise, De Architectura, which influenced architects worldwide for centuries. As the only treatise on architecture to survive from antiquity, it has been regarded since the Renaissance as the first book of architectural theory and as a major source in the canon of classical architecture.

Just as the Greeks did, the Romans built amphitheatres. The largest amphitheatre ever built, the Colosseum in Rome, could hold around 50,000 spectators.  The oldest stone amphitheatre was the one built in 70 B.C. in Pompeii.

Another iconic Roman structure that demonstrates their precision and technological advancement is the Pont du Gard in southern France, the highest surviving Roman aqueduct. One of the most important innovations of the Romans was the widespread provision of running water. The Roman aqueduct was a channel used to transport fresh water to highly populated areas. Although earlier civilisations in Egypt and India also built aqueducts, the Romans improved on the design and built an extensive, complex network across their territories.

Evidence of aqueducts remains in parts of modern-day France, Spain, Greece, North Africa, and Turkey. Aqueducts required extensive planning. They were made from a series of pipes, tunnels, canals, and bridges. Gravity and the natural slope of the land allowed aqueducts to channel water from a freshwater source, such as a lake or spring, to a city. As water flowed into the cities, it was used for drinking, irrigation, and to supply hundreds of public fountains and baths.

Roman aqueduct systems were built over a period of about 500 years, from 312 B.C. to A.D. 226. Both public and private funds were used to finance construction. High-ranking rulers often had them built; the Roman emperors Augustus, Caligula, and Trajan all commissioned aqueducts. The most recognisable feature of Roman aqueducts may be the bridges constructed using rounded stone arches. Some of these can still be seen today, traversing European valleys.

However, these bridged structures made up only a small portion of the hundreds of kilometres of aqueducts throughout the empire. The capital of Rome alone had around 11 aqueduct systems supplying freshwater from sources up to 92 km (57 miles) away. Despite their age, some aqueducts still function and provide modern-day Rome with water. The Aqua Virgo, an aqueduct constructed by Agrippa in 19 B.C. during Augustus’ reign, still supplies water to Rome’s famous Trevi Fountain in the heart of the city.

Roman architecture flourished in the Roman Republic and to an even greater extent under the Empire, when the great majority of surviving buildings were constructed. It used new materials, particularly Roman Concrete, and newer technologies, such as the arch and the dome, to build buildings that were typically strong and well-engineered. Large numbers remain in some form across the former empire, sometimes complete and still in use today.

Roman architecture covers the period from the establishment of the Roman Republic in 509 BC to about the 4th century A.D., after which it becomes reclassified as Late Antique or Byzantine architecture. Few substantial examples survive from before about 100 B.C., and most of the major survivals are from the later empire, after about 100 AD. Roman architectural style continued to influence building in the former empire for many centuries, and the style used in Western Europe beginning about 1000 A.D. is called Romanesque architecture to reflect this dependence on basic Roman form.

The Romans only began to achieve significant originality in architecture around the beginning of the Imperial period, after they had combined aspects of their originally Etruscan architecture with elements from Greece, including most of the elements of the style we now call classical architecture. They moved from trabeated construction, mostly based on columns and lintels, to one based on massive walls, punctuated by arches, and later domes, both of which were greatly developed under the Romans. The classical orders now became largely decorative rather than structural, except in colonnades. Stylistic developments included the Tuscan and Composite orders, the first a shortened, simplified variant of the Doric Order, and the Composite a tall order with the floral decoration of the Corinthian and the scrolls of the Ionic. The period from roughly 40 BC to about 230 AD saw most of the greatest achievements, before the Crisis of the Third Century and later troubles reduced the wealth and organising power of the central governments.

The Romans produced massive public buildings and works of civil engineering, and were responsible for significant developments in housing and public hygiene, for example, their public and private baths and latrines, under-floor heating in the form of the hypocaust, micaing (examples in Ostia Antica), and piped hot and cold water (examples in Pompeii and Ostia).

Roman Triumphal Arch of Trajan at Timgad, Batna, Algeria, Completion date c. 100 A.D.

Entry to the temple of Jupiter at Baalbek, 16 BC and finished around AD 60

Ed-Deir, The Monastery, at Petra, mid-first century A.D.

EARLY CHRISTIAN EUROPE

Early Christian Architecture

Christian architecture began to develop after 313 A.D., following Constantine's conversion to Christianity.   The rapidly growing Christian population, now supported by the state, needed to build larger and grander public buildings for worship than the mostly discreet meeting places they had been using, which were typically in or among domestic buildings. Pagan temples remained in use for their original purposes for some time and, at least in Rome, were even shunned by Christians until the 6th or 7th centuries, when some were converted into churches.

Elsewhere, this happened sooner. Architectural formulas for temples were unsuitable not only for their pagan associations, but also because pagan cults and sacrifices occurred outdoors under the open sky in the sight of the gods, with the temple, housing the cult figures and the treasury, serving as a windowless backdrop. 

The model at hand for Emperor Constantine I when he sought to memorialise his imperial piety was the familiar, conventional architecture of the basilica. There were several variations on the basic plan of the secular basilica, always a rectangular hall, but the one usually followed for churches had a central nave with one aisle on each side and an apse at one end, opposite the main door at the other. In and often also in front of the apse was a raised platform where the altar stood, and the clergy officiated. In secular buildings, this plan was more typically used for the smaller audience halls of the emperors, governors, and the very rich than for the great public basilicas functioning as law courts and other public purposes.

This was the normal pattern used for Roman churches, and generally in the Western Empire, but the Eastern Empire, and Roman Africa, were more adventurous, and their models were sometimes copied in the West, for example, in Milan. All variations allowed natural light from windows high in the walls, a departure from the windowless sanctuaries of the temples of most previous religions, and this has remained a consistent feature of Christian church architecture. Formulas for churches with a large central area became preferred in Byzantine architecture, which developed basilica-style domed churches early on. 

A particular and short-lived type of building, using the same basilican form, was the funerary hall, which was not a normal church, though the surviving examples long ago became regular churches, and they always offered funeral and memorial services, but a building erected in the Constantinian period as an indoor cemetery on a site connected with early Christian martyrs, such as a catacomb.

The six examples built by Constantine outside the walls of Rome are: Old Saint Peter's Basilica, the older basilica dedicated to Saint Agnes of which Santa Costanza is now the only remaining element, San Sebastiano fuori le mura, San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, Santi Marcellino e Pietro al Laterano, and one in the modern park of Villa Gordiani. A martyrium was a building erected on a spot with particular significance, often over the burial of a martyr. No particular architectural form was associated with the type, and they were often small. Many became churches, or chapels erected adjoining larger churches.

With baptistries and mausolea, their often smaller size and different function made martyria suitable for architectural experimentation.

Among the key buildings, not all surviving in their original form are:

Constantinian Basilicas such as:

Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, Rome

St Mary Major, Rome

Old Saint Peter's Basilica. Vatican

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

Church of the Nativity. Bethlehem

Saint Sofia Church, Sofia

Centralised Plan Santa Constanza, Rome, built as an Imperial mausoleum adjoining a funerary hall, part of the wall of which survives.

Church of St. George, Sofia

Surviving examples of medieval secular architecture primarily served defensive purposes across Europe. Castles and fortified walls provide the most notable remaining non-religious examples of medieval architecture. New types of civic, military, and religious buildings began to appear in Europe during this period.

BYZANTINE ERA

Byzantine architecture

Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, or Eastern Roman Empire, usually dated from AD 330, when Constantine the Great established a new Roman capital in Byzantium, which became Constantinople, until the Fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 A.D. There was initially no hard line between the Byzantine and Roman Empires, and early Byzantine architecture is stylistically and structurally indistinguishable from late Roman architecture. The style continued to be based on arches, vaults, and domes, often on a large scale.

Wall mosaics with a gold background became standard for the grandest buildings, with frescoes a cheaper alternative. The richest interiors were finished with thin marble slabs or coloured, patterned stone. Some of the columns were also made of marble. Other widely used materials were bricks and stone. Mosaics made of stone or glass tesserae were also elements of interior architecture. Precious wood furniture, like beds, chairs, stools, tables, bookshelves, and silver or golden cups with beautiful reliefs, decorated Byzantine interiors.

Early Byzantine architecture drew upon earlier elements of Roman and Greek architecture. Stylistic drift, technological advances, and political and territorial changes led to the gradual emergence of a distinct Greek-cross plan in Church architecture. Civil architecture continued Greco-Roman trends; the Byzantines built impressive fortifications and bridges, but generally not aqueducts on the same scale as the Romans.

This terminology was introduced by modern historians to designate the medieval Roman Empire as it evolved as a distinct artistic and cultural entity centred on the new capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) rather than the city of Rome and its environs. Its architecture dramatically influenced the later medieval architecture throughout Europe and the Near East.

Characteristics

When the Roman Empire became Christian (after extending eastwards) and established its new capital at Constantinople, its architecture became more sensuous and ambitious. This new style, with exotic domes and richer mosaics, would come to be known as "Byzantine" before it traveled west to Ravenna and Venice, and as far north as Moscow. Most churches and basilicas have high-riding domes, which create vast open spaces at the centres of the churches, thereby heightening the light. The round arch is a fundamental of the Byzantine style. Magnificent golden mosaics, with their graphic simplicity, brought light and warmth to the heart of churches. Byzantine capitals break away from the Classical conventions of ancient Greece and Rome, adopting sinuous lines and naturalistic forms that prefigure the Gothic style.

In the same way, the Parthenon is the most impressive monument for Classical religion, and Hagia Sophia remained the iconic church for Christianity.  The temples of these two religions differ substantially in their interiors and exteriors. For Classical temples, only the exterior was important, because only the priests entered the interior, where the statue of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated was kept. The ceremonies were held outside, in front of the temple. Instead, Christian liturgies were held inside the churches.

Broadly speaking, according to Patricios, sacred Byzantine architecture falls into one of seven types:

1. Basilican – dominant from the fourth to the seventh centuries;

2. Domed basilica – where all parts of the church were covered by masonry vaults and the dome was placed at the centre point of the length of the church;

3. Cruciform – typically tripartite—the Bema or sanctuary faces east, the naos or nave space in the middle, and the narthex or entrance vestibule to the west;

4. Centralised – designed initially as martyria (tomb-shrines of martyrs) and baptisteries, often where the longitudinal axis of the basilica was replaced by a vertical axis, that served as the focal point;

5. Converted temple – taking various forms based on the conversion of ancient Egyptian temples;

6. Cross-in-Square – prominent during the ninth century, and then took over as the dominant form, with a square central mass and four arms of equal length, typically, with a distinctive domed roof; 

7. Athonite – created in the tenth century, based on the cross-in-square form with two major modifications: two side apses and two narthexes                                                                                                                                                       

Byzantine architects built city walls, palaces, hippodromes, bridges, aqueducts, and most importantly, churches. They left us many types of churches, including the basilica (the most widespread type, and the one that reached the greatest development). From the basilica, derive the other two types: the circular and the octagonal. Another monumental type of church is the one shaped like an Orthodox cross with five domes. In Mainland Greece, the most widespread type of church was the cruciform one, with one or more domes. Also, a large number of churches of these shapes exist in Moscow, Novgorod, and Kyiv, as well as in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Albania.

                                                                                                                                                                      Through modifications and adaptations of local influences, the Byzantine style will serve as the primary inspiration for architecture in Eastern Orthodox countries. For example, in Romania, the Brâncovenesc style is strongly influenced by Byzantine architecture but also has distinct Romanian characteristics. Just as the Parthenon is the most famous monument of Ancient Greek religion, Hagia Sophia remains an iconic church of Christianity. The temples of both religions differ substantially in their exteriors and interiors. In Antiquity, the exterior was the most important part of the temple, because, in the interior, where the cult statue of the deity to whom the temple was built was kept, only the priest had access. The ceremonies were held outside, and what the worshipers saw was the temple's facade, consisting of columns, an entablature, and two pediments.

Meanwhile, Christian liturgies were held in the interior of the churches, the exterior usually having little to no ornamentation. Byzantine architecture often featured marble columns, coffered ceilings, and sumptuous decoration, including the extensive use of mosaics with golden backgrounds.

The building material used by Byzantine architects was no longer marble, which had been very much the rule for the Ancient Greeks. They used mostly stone and brick, as well as thin alabaster sheets for windows. Mosaics were used to cover brick walls and any other surface where fresco wouldn't work. Good examples of mosaics from the proto-Byzantine era include Hagios Demetrios in Thessaloniki (Greece), the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and the Basilica of San Vitale, both in Ravenna (Italy), and Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

Byzantine Architectural styles lasted for 1,500 years, and in fact, the elements are still visible in many modern churches built by Eastern Orthodox sects today.

ROMANESQUE ERA

Romanesque architecture

The term 'Romanesque' is rooted in the 19th century, when it was coined to describe medieval churches built from the 10th to 12th century, before the rise of steeply pointed arches, flying buttresses, and other Gothic elements. For 19th-century critics, the Romanesque reflected the architecture of stonemasons who evidently admired the heavy barrel vaults and intricately carved capitals of the ancient Romans, but whose own architecture was considered derivative and degenerate, lacking the sophistication of their classical models. Scholars in the 21st century are less inclined to understand the architecture of this period as a 'failure' to reproduce the achievements of the past and are far more likely to recognise its profusion of experimental forms as a series of creative new inventions.

Combining features of ancient Roman and Byzantine buildings and other local traditions, Romanesque architecture is known for its massive quality, thick walls, round arches, sturdy pillars, barrel vaults, large towers, and decorative arcading. Each building has clearly defined forms, frequently of very regular, symmetrical lan. The overall appearance is simple compared with the Gothic buildings that were to follow. The style can be identified right across Europe, despite regional characteristics and different materials.

At the time, however, research questioned the value of the term Romanesque as a stylistic category. On the surface, it provides a convenient designation for buildings that share a common vocabulary of rounded arches and thick stone masonry, and appear between the Carolingian revival of classical antiquity in the 9th century and the swift evolution of Gothic architecture after the second half of the 12th century. One problem, however, is that the term encompasses a broad array of regional variations, some with closer links to Rome than others. It should also be noted that the distinction between Romanesque architecture and its immediate predecessors and followers is not at all clear. There is little evidence that medieval viewers were concerned with the stylistic distinctions we observe today, making the slow evolution of medieval architecture difficult to categorise neatly by chronology.

Nevertheless, Romanesque remains a useful word despite its limitations, because it reflects a period of intensive building activity that maintained some continuity with the classical past but freely reinterpreted ancient forms in a new, distinctive manner. Romanesque cathedrals can be easily distinguished from Gothic and Byzantine ones, as they are characterised by the extensive use of thick piers and columns, round arches, and a sense of severity.

Here, the possibilities of the round-arch arcade in both a structural and a spatial sense were once again exploited to the full. Unlike the sharply pointed arch of the later Gothic, the Romanesque round arch required the support of massive piers and columns. Compared to Byzantine churches, Romanesque ones tend to lack complex ornamentation on both the exterior and the interior. An example of this is the Saint-Front Cathedral at Périgueux, France, built in the early 12th century and modelled on St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, but lacking mosaics, leaving its interior very austere and minimalist.  The Saint-Front Cathedral in Périgueux was rebuilt by the architect Paul Abadie from 1852 to 1895. Only the bell tower and the crypts, both from the 12th century, were left from the previous structures.

Buildings of every type were constructed in the Romanesque style, with evidence remaining of simple domestic buildings, elegant town houses, grand palaces, commercial premises, civic buildings, castles, city walls, bridges, village churches, abbey churches, abbey complexes, and large cathedrals. Of these types of buildings, domestic and commercial buildings are the rarest, with only a handful of survivors in the United Kingdom, several clusters in France, isolated buildings across Europe, and by far the largest number, often unidentified and altered over the centuries, in Italy. Many castles have foundations dating back to the Romanesque period. Most have been substantially altered, and many are in ruins.

By far the greatest number of surviving Romanesque buildings are churches. These range from tiny chapels to large cathedrals. Although many have been extended and altered in different styles, a large number remain either substantially intact or sympathetically restored, demonstrating the form, character and decoration of Romanesque church architecture.

German Romanesque architecture is an important section of Romanesque architecture. It ran roughly from the 10th–early 13th century. It is defined by monumental scale, thick walls, round arches, and a distinctive double-apse plan. Often built of brick or stone, these churches emphasise symmetry, featuring towers at both ends, heavy piers, and exterior decorations such as dwarf galleries. The style is best seen in the massive Imperial Cathedrals of the Rhineland. 

Key Characteristics

• Double-Apsed Basilica: Often features an apse at both the east and west ends, reducing the importance of a single, massive western entrance.
• Rhenish Helm Towers: Towers are often octagonal, with roofs that take on a unique, steep, four-gabled shape known as the Rhenish helm.
• Alternating Support Systems: The nave arcades often alternate between heavy square pillars and columns, a technique noted at Saint Cyriakus at Gernrode.
• Massive Exterior Decoration: Exterior walls are frequently adorned with dwarf galleries (open arcades), Lombard bands, and blind arches to break up the vast stone surfaces.
• Double-Ended Transepts: Transepts are present at both the eastern and western ends of the structure. 

Key Regional Examples

• Speyer Cathedral at Speyer: Begun around 1030, this is the most significant Romanesque building in Germany, serving as a huge monument to the Salian dynasty's power.

• Mainz Cathedral at Mainz is known for its massive, dominating presence in the city of Mainz.

• Worms Cathedral at Worms: An excellent example of the Rhenish Romanesque style.

• Saint Cyriakus at Gernrode: Known for the earliest implementation of the alternating support system.

• Saint Michael's Church at Hildesheim is noted for its harmonious early Romanesque design.

• Cathedral at Limburg: A key example of late Romanesque using colourful stonework. 

German Romanesque architecture often retained elements from the previous Carolingian and Ottonian periods, such as strong Westwerks (western facade structures).