Byzantine Church Arch

Church Architecture in
Byzantine period
WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP

• the Byzantines were the remnants of the Eastern Roman
Empire which survived from the 5th century CE until the fall of
Constantinople in 1453 CE.
Close up of a Byzantine Mosaic from the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna,

Mosaics are an integral part of Byzantine Architecture.
• Byzantine
architecture begins
with Constantine
• Spreads in three
periods
• Early ,Middle & Later

House Church
• The domus ecclesiae, or house-
church,
• include a meeting hall and
perhaps a baptistery.
WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP House church floor plan, Dura Europos, c. 230
• At Jerusalem, Constantine’s church of the
Holy Sepulchre (dedicated 336) marked
the sites of Christ’s Crucifixion,
Entombment, and Resurrection

Early Christian burials
• Unlike pagans, who practiced
both cremation and inhumation
(burial), Christians insisted upon
inhumation because of the belief
in the bodily resurrection of the
dead at the end of days.
• In addition to areae (above-

ground cemeteries) and
catacombs (underground
cemeteries), Christians required
settings for commemorative Romancatacombs, cubiculum with loculi (left), cubiculum with arcos
banquets or refrigeria, a carry- olia (right), adapted from Antonio Bosio.
over from pagan practices.

• The earliest Christian burials at the
Roman catacombs were situated amid
those of other religions, but by the end of
the second century, exclusively Christian
cemeteries are known, beginning with
the Catacomb of St. Callixtus.
• Well organized with a series of parallel

corridors carved into the tufa (a porous
rock common in Italy), the catacombs
expanded and grew more labyrinthine
over the subsequent centuries. Within,
the most common form of tomb was a
simple, shelf-like loculus organized in
multiple tiers in the walls of the corridors.
Catacombs of Callixtus, Rome,

• Byzantine architects were eclectic,
• Influence of Roman temple features.

•
• Their combination of the basilica and
symmetrical central-plan (circular or
polygonal) religious structures resulted in the
characteristic Byzantine Greek-cross-plan
church, with a square central mass and
four arms of equal length.
• The most distinctive feature was the domed
roof. To allow a dome to rest above a square
base, either of two devices was used: the
squinch (an arch in each of the corners of a
square base that transforms it into an
octagon) or the pendentive.

MIDDLE BYZANTINE
ARCHITECTURE
Four bracing vaults extend outward

in the form of a cross, set within the
square of the plan below.
Hence the term, “cross-in-square,”

• Four columns support the dome
and subdivide the naos into nine
bays.
• Those in the corners are the lowest,
and correspond in height with the
narthex and pastophoria—the side
chambers in the bema that flank
the central altar area.
• Pilasters with half-columns on the
church’s exterior correspond to
internal walls and supports so one
can “read” the internal structure
based on its exterior
WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair articulation.
/B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP Elements of a cross-in-square church, Myrelaion church
(Bodrum Mosque), c. 920, Constantinople (Istanbul)
HAGIA SOPHIA
•Ordered to be built by Constantine I in 325
on the foundations of a pagan temple.
•Built and pulle ddown multiple times.
•The resultant Hagia Sophia was built in the

remarkably short time of about six years,
being completed in 537 CE.
•Unusual for the period in which it was built,

the names of the building’s architects—
Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus

The first church on the site was known as the Magna Ecclesia 'Great Church') because of its
size compared to the sizes of the contemporary churches in the city.
A second church on the site was ordered by Theodosius II (r. 402–450).
Church of Justinian I (current structure)
On 23 February 532, only a few weeks after the destruction of the second basilica,
Emperor Justinian I inaugurated the construction of a third and entirely different basilica,
larger and more majestic than its predecessors

After the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II had it repurposed as a mosque, with the addition of a
wooden minaret (on the exterior, a tower used for the summons to prayer), a great chandelier, a mihrab (niche indicating
the direction of Mecca), and a minbar(pulpit).

The Hagia Sophia measures 269 feet in length and 240 feet in width, with the domed roof
stretching 179 feet above the ground.

The Hagia Sophia has 104 columns,
Theodosian capital
Originally a church, later a mosque, the 6th-century Hagia Sophia (532–537) by Byzantine emperor Justinian
the Great was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, until the completion of the Seville
Cathedral
WAU(1507) in Spain.
/Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP
The Church of Justinian I today.
The mihrab located in the apse where the altar used to stand, pointing
towards Mecca. The two giant candlesticks flanking the mihrab were
brought in from Ottoman Hungary by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.
Windows at the Base of the Dome, Hagia Sophia

Nave and south aisle from the north aisle
WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP Ceiling decoration showing original Christian cross
still visible through the later aniconic decoration
BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE DURING ICONOCLASM*
The "Transitional Period“
Corresponds to the Iconoclast controversy (a dispute over the use of religious images, or
“icons”), incursions by the Arabs
, and an economic downturn, was not conducive to architectural production and, it seems, less
conducive to the documentation of building activity.
The period nevertheless accounts for dramatic and permanent changes in Byzantine religious
architecture in both form and scale.
Byzantine Iconoclasm was started by a ban on religious images promulgated by the

Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian, and continued under his successors. It was
accompanied by widespread destruction of religious images and persecution of supporters of
the veneration of images. The Papacy remained firmly in support of the use of religious
images throughout the period, and the whole episode widened the growing
divergence between the Byzantine and Carolingian traditions in what was still a unified
*Note : Iconoclasm
European literallyas
Church, means
well“image breaking” and
as facilitating refers
the to a recurring
reduction historical impulse
or removal to break or political control
of Byzantine
destroy images for religious or political reasons. Iconoclasm literally means “image breaking” and refers
over parts of the Italian Peninsula.
to a recurring historical impulse to break or destroy images for religious or political reasons
Materials in construction

Techniques of Construction

Architectural Characteristics
1.The dome: the central dome is supported by two half

domes on the west and the east side.
2.The Minarets
3.The Flying Buttresses: The pressure by the central dome

on the half domes in the western-eastern direction caused
big problems in time. In the Late Byzantine Empire era,
Hagia Sophia began to lean towards the west, thus, the
flying buttresses were built to support the building.

The stone is deeply drilled, creating shadows behind the
vegetative decoration. The capital surface appears thin.
This deep carving appears throughout Hagia Sophia's
capitals, spandrels, and entablatures.

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Church Architecture in

WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP

Close up of a Byzantine Mosaic from the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna,

WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP

WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP

• In addition to areae (above-

WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP

• Well organized with a series of parallel

Catacombs of Callixtus, Rome,

• Influence of Roman temple features.

WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP

Four bracing vaults extend outward

WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP

•Built and pulle ddown multiple times.

•The resultant Hagia Sophia was built in the

•Unusual for the period in which it was built,

WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP

A second church on the site was ordered by Theodosius II (r. 402–450).

Church of Justinian I (current structure)

WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP

WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP

WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP

WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP

Byzantine Iconoclasm was started by a ban on religious images promulgated by the

WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP

WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP

1.The dome: the central dome is supported by two half

3.The Flying Buttresses: The pressure by the central dome

WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP

WAU /Ar.Thushara.G.Nair /B-Arch 2021-26 /PSGIAP

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