Byzantine

Architecture

Alexis Gaius Isis L. Aranas
Danielle Anne E. Reodica
 BYZANTIUM
Constantinople (after its

Imperial founder)
“New Rome“ was
inaugurated as capital of the
Roman Empire in A.D. 330.
Byzantium, said to have been
founded about B.C. 750.
It is known to have been a
Greek colony some three
hundred years later.
In A.D. 324, became the
capital of the Roman Empire.
 INFLUENCES

 GEOGRAPHICAL
 GEOLOGICAL
 CLIMATIC
 RELIGIOUS
 SOCIAL
 HISTORICAL
GEOGRAPHICAL
Influence

 Byzantium stands on seven hills, and is
at the junction of the Bosphorus and
the Sea of Marmora, where Europe and
Asia are only divided by a narrow strip
of water.
 This gave it a commanding and central
position for the government of the
expanding Roman Empire.
 It was also at the intersection of two
great highways of commerce, the water
highway between the Black Sea and
Mediterranean, and the trade route
between Europe and Asia ; and thus it
controlled the corn trade from the
northern shores of the Euxine
Sea(Black Sea).
GEOGRAPHICAL
Influence

 The large, natural harbor of the Golden
Horn possesses unusual advantages for
commerce ; for it is four miles in length,
unaffected by tides, and of sufficient depth
to render its quays accessible to ships of
deep draught.
 Byzantine art pervaded all parts of the
Eastern Roman Empire and was carried by
traders to Greece, Russia, Asia Minor,
North Africa, and even farther west, where
it is found in Venice, Ravenna, and
Perigueux, and it had considerable
influence on the architecture of these
districts.
 GEOLOGICAL
Influence

 Constantine possessed no good building stone, and local
materials such as clay for bricks and rubble for concrete were
employed.
 Other materials more monumental in character had therefore to
be imported : marble was brought from the quarries in the
islands and along the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean to
Constantinople, which was the chief marble-working centre
and supplied all parts of the Roman Empire.
 Byzantine architecture was further considerably influenced by
the multitude of monolithic columns of such sizes as were
obtainable from the different quarries. These were even
introduced into the underground cisterns for the water storage
of this Imperial city.
CLIMATIC
Influence

 Flat roofs for summer resort
were combined with oriental
domes
 Small windows often high
up in otherwise unbroken
walls, formed the chief
features of the style
 Sheltering arcades
surrounded the open courts.
 RELIGIOUS
Influence

 In the year 313 the Edict of Milan was Issued, which
granted toleration to Christians, and in 330
Constantinople became the capital of the first
Christian Empire. It follows that the chief buildings
erected in the new capital were churches for the new
religions. At first they were of the Basilican Early
Christian type.
 Later, the domical Byzantine Style was developed.
 Byzantine architecture, devoid of statues has always
been and still .remains the official style of the
Orthodox church of Greece and eastern Europe which
has conserved unchanged its doctrines and ritual.
 HISTORICAL
Influence

On the death of the Emperor Theodosius I
(A.D. 395) the Empire was finally divided,
and Byzantium continued to be the capital of
the Eastern Empire, and throughout the
Middle Ages was the bulwark of
Christianity against the attacks of the Huns
and Goths on the west, and of Saracens on
the east.
 SOCIAL
Influence

 Constantine developed the policy initiated by Diocletian (A.D. 284–305) of
providing adequate civil government and military protection throughout
the widespread Roman Empire and showed his statesmanship in his
manner of dealing with this political problem, just as he did in securing
support for himself from the growing power of Christianity by
establishing it as the state religion. Diocletian's attempt, however, to solve
the difficulty of managing the Eastern Empire from the west of Italy by
instituting three seats of government, in addition to that of Rome, had
proved ineffectual and open to abuse, and therefore when Constantine in
his turn was confronted with the same difficulty he took the bold course
of transplanting his capital from Rome to Byzantium (A.D. 324) because
he recognized the political value of its central position in the Empire.
 Byzantium was an old Greek city, and so the new Imperial buildings were
executed by Greek craftsmen untrammelled by Roman traditions. Within
the fortifications of Constantine, the new city was laid out on Roman
lines, so far as the hills and site allowed.
 
ARCHITECTURAL
CHARACTER
 METHODS OF
CONSTRUCTION

 Brickwork (external)
 Caprices in patterns and banding,
internally it was suitable for covering
with marble, mosaic and 'fresco'
decoration.
 The decorative character of external
facades depended largely on the
arrangement of the facing bricks: not
laid horizontally, obliquely, form of the
meander fret, chevron or herringbone
pattern.
 METHODS OF
CONSTRUCTION

 FRESCO - a term originally applied to
painting on a wall while the plaster is wet,
but is often used for any wall painting not
in oil colors.
 DOME – a traditional feature in the East; a
fusion o{ the domical construction with the
classical columnar style. Domes of various
types were now placed over square
compartments by means of pendentives'.
 PENDENTIVE- the term applied to the
triangular curved .overhanging surface by
means of which a circular dome is
supported over a square or polygonal
compartment.
 METHODS OF
CONSTRUCTION

 METHODS OF
CONSTRUCTION

Three types of DOMES:

a. Simple - pendentives and domes are part of the same

sphere
 METHODS OF
CONSTRUCTION

Three types of DOMES:

b. Compound
1. The dome is not part of the
same sphere as the pendentives
and domes rises independently
upon them.
2. The dome is raised on a high
drum pierced with windows.
 METHODS OF
CONSTRUCTION

Three types of DOMES:

c. Special designs
1. Melon Dome ~dome with
convolutions
2. Serrated
3. Onion or Bulbous sharp
 METHODS OF
CONSTRUCTION

 These domes were usually •centering - a temporary structure
constructed of bricks on upon which the materials of a
vault or arch are supported in
some light porous stone, position until the work becomes
such as pumice, or even of self-supporting.
pottery.
 Some byzantine Domes and
vaults were, it is believed,
constructed without
temporary support or
centering by the simple use
of large flat bricks.
 METHODS OF
CONSTRUCTION

 At St. Sophia, haunches were strengthened by a ring of small buttresses to
compensate for the weakening effect of the window openings.

 The grouping of small domes or semi-domes round the large central dome
was effective and one of the characteristic features of Byzantine churches was
that the forms of the vaults and domes were visible externally. Undisguised
by any timber roof; thus in the Byzantine style the exterior closely
corresponds with the interior.
 METHODS OF
CONSTRUCTION

 At St. Sophia, haunches were strengthened by a ring of
small buttresses to compensate for the weakening effect of
the window openings.
 METHODS OF
CONSTRUCTION

 The grouping of small domes or semi-domes round the large central
dome was effective and one of the characteristic features of Byzantine
churches was that the forms of the vaults and domes were visible
externally.
 Undisguised by any timber roof; thus in the Byzantine style the exterior
closely corresponds with the interior.
 METHODS OF
CONSTRUCTION

 In St. Sophia is seen the perfect
expression of the Byzantine
style: for the columns are not
merely ornamental, but really
support galleries, and semi-
circular arches rest directly on
columns with capitals suitable
for supporting the springers of
arches of which the voussoirs
were rectangular blocks not set
in receding moulded planes, as
in mediaeval architecture.
 EXAMPLES

1. St. Sophia. Constantinople (Hagia 5(1phia = divine wisdom)
was built by Justinian by the architects Anthemius of Tralles and
lsidorus of Miletus, or the site of two successive basilican churches
of the same name, erected respectively by Constantine and
Theodosius lt.
 EXAMPLES
2. St. Mark, Venice

 Reflects the art of Byzantium which so
largely influenced the architecture of
Venice.
 The glittering, resplendent facade of
the narthex faces the great ~Piazza' of
San Marco, whose vast open space,
paved in marble, forms a great public
atrium to the church.
 Dedicated to the sea-city's patron saint.
 *piazza - a public open space or square
surrounded by buildings.
 EXAMPLES
site of the
 This famous edifice stands on the
original basilican church, which was founded in
 830 to receive the body of St. Mark, and partially
burnt down 976. ....
 The plan has a central dome 12.8 m (42ft.) in
diameter, and e dome over each arm of the
 cross. The great square piets, 8.5 m x 6.4 m (28 ft.
x 21 ft.} which can the dome are pierced on both
the ground and gallery levels, and arcades
support passages connecting the central piers to
f.t\e extremities of the nave and transepts.
 The addition of the narthex and baptistery
makes the church approximately square in plan.
 EXAMPLES

3. Gracanica Church
 EXAMPLES
4. St. Sophia, Novgorod

 For capitals, the Roman Ionic,
Corinthian, and composite types
were sometimes used, but from
these were derived a new
"'cubiform" type with convex side
suited to carry a rising arch which
took the place of the horizontal
entablature.
 Over each type was placed a deep
abacus or "Dosseret block" a new
invention which performed the
function of enlarging the surface of
the capital to support the wide
voussoirs of the arch or a thick wall.
Hagia Sophia

 Was chosen a world heritage site by
UNESCO in 1985.
 Rebuilt by the orders of Emperor Justinian
in 537, for 900 years Hagia Sophia had
been the center of Orthodox Christianity
until 1453 when the city was concurred by
Ottomans. 500 years following the
conquest of Muslims, it became a jewel for
the Muslim world and as the grand
mosque of the sultans. 
 In 1935, Hagia Sophia had been converted
into a museum of Turkish Republic by the
orders of Ataturk, and became one of the
most significant monuments not only in
Turkey but on earth with its architecture
and its historical richness.
Hagia Sophia

 Was chosen a world heritage site by
UNESCO in 1985.
 Rebuilt by the orders of Emperor Justinian
in 537, for 900 years Hagia Sophia had
been the center of Orthodox Christianity
until 1453 when the city was concurred by
Ottomans. 500 years following the
conquest of Muslims, it became a jewel for
the Muslim world and as the grand
mosque of the sultans. 
 In 1935, Hagia Sophia had been converted
into a museum of Turkish Republic by the
orders of Ataturk, and became one of the
most significant monuments not only in
Turkey but on earth with its architecture
and its historical richness.
 Hagia Sophia

Interior of the Hagia
Sophia in Istanbul,
Turkey. The crown of
the dome rises 180 feet
(55 meters) above the
floor.

http://www.livescience.com/27574-hagia-
sophia.html
Hagia Sophia

Sunlight coming in
through the windows of
the Hagia Sophia "seemed
to dissolve the solidity of
the walls and created an
ambience of ineffable
mystery," wrote one
author.
Hagia Sophia

The Apse Mosaic in
the Hagia Sophia
shows the Virgin
Mary holding baby
Jesus. It is 13 feet tall. 
Hagia Sophia


 
Fig. 1 Vize, Hagia Sophia, exterior from
west, 2003
Hagia Sophia


 
Fig. 2 Vize, Hagia Sophia, exterior from
southwest, ca. 1960
Hagia Sophia


 
Fig. 3 Vize, Hagia Sophia, exterior from
east, 2004 (photo: R. Rosenbauer)
Hagia Sophia


Fig. 4 Vize, Hagia Sophia, exterior from

east, ca. 1960 (photo: C. Mango)
Hagia Sophia


 
Fig. 5 Vize, Hagia Sophia, interior toward
east, 2003 (photo: R. Rosenbauer)
Hagia Sophia


Fig. 6 Vize, Hagia Sophia, interior (photo:

U. Peschlow)
Hagia Sophia


Fig. 7 Vize, Hagia Sophia, ground and

gallery plan (drawings: R. Rosenbauer)
Hagia Sophia


 
Fig. 8 Vize, Hagia Sophia, transverse
sections with views to east and west
(drawings: R. Rosenbauer)
Hagia Sophia


Fig. 9 Vize, Hagia Sophia, longitudinal

section toward south (drawing:
R. Rosenbauer)
Hagia Sophia


Fig. 10 Vize, Hagia Sophia, dome from east

Hagia Sophia

 
Fig. 11 Vize, Hagia
Sophia, south facade,
detail of
reinforcement wall
behind west
arcosolium
Hagia Sophia


 
Fig. 12 Vize, Hagia Sophia, south facade,
wall protruding south with blocked
archway’
Hagia Sophia


Fig. 13 Vize, Hagia Sophia, diakonikon,

fragment of original marble floor
Hagia Sophia


 
Fig. 14 Vize, Hagia Sophia, sanctuary with
original floor tiles and templon stylobate
(drawing: R. Casagrande)
Hagia Sophia


 
Fig. 15 Fragment of Byzantine opus sectile
Floor
Hagia Sophia


 
Figs. 16–17 Fragments of an ambo
(drawing: K. Noreen and R. Casagrande)
Hagia Sophia


Fig. 18 Fragments of a lintel

Hagia Sophia


Fig. 19 Fragments of a marble screen

Hagia Sophia


Fig. 20 Vize, Hagia Sophia, south corridor

after cleaning in 2004
Hagia Sophia


 
Figs. 21–22 Vize, Hagia Sophia, south and
north corridors, detail of wall belonging
to previous structure
Hagia Sophia


Fig. 23 Vize, Hagia Sophia, ground

plan with remains of previous structure
(drawing: R. Casagrande)
Hagia Sophia


Fig. 24 Vize,
Hagia Sophia,
west
facade
(drawing: R.
Rosenbauer and
R. Casagrande)
Hagia Sophia


 
Fig. 25 Vize, Hagia Sophia, site plan
(drawing: R. Rosenbauer)
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