College of Environmental Design
Department of Architecture, UC Berkeley
Architecture Slide Library
Arch 170A. Fall 1995 James Study Aid 13
I. Religious architecture (centrally-planned churches) of the Byzantine Empire (326-1453) and surrounding, mostly Slavic, territories inhabited by other Orthodox (Eastern rite) Christians. Imperial capital of Byzantium, renamed Constantinople after Constantine, the empire's founder, and now known as Istanbul. Its stripped double Walls, 412-13.
II. Churches in Constantinople: From a basilica like Hag. Ioannes Studios, 463, to centrally planned Haigos Sergios & Bakchos, 527-36. Byzantine emperor Justinian as patron of the latter and of Hagia Sophia, 532-37, built to the designs of Anthemios of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus. Geometric clarity of the plan -- a domed square with two apsed and two flat ends - versus experience of it as mystical apparition. Departure from canonical classical orders. Original mosaic and marble decoration. Crowned with an enormous ribbed dome supported on four great piers and pendentives (triangular segments of a sphere). Too unusual in scale and precarious in structure to provide more than a general model.
III. Two churches in Ravenna (Italy) illustrate the difference between early Christian basilican churches (San Apollinare in Classe, 532-49) and centrally planned Byzantine ones (San Vitale, finished 548). Latter features a central octagon, encircled by a two-story ambulatory, and mosaics in the apse of Justian and his wife Theodora.
IV. Middle Byzantine architecture in Greece: quincunx (cross in square) plan of Church of the Theotokus, 10th century and variant with a larger central space Katholikon, finished c1015, both Hosios Lukas (Image 1 ). Both built of decorative combination of stone and brick; upper church of Katholikon erected over a crypt; its interior encrusted with marble and mosaic decoration; its dome supported on squinches (concave niches).
VI. Impact of Byzantine design upon Slavic neighbors when they convert to Christianity: Russian church architecture. Six-domed Cathedral of Saint Sophia, Novgorod, 1045-1052, and Cathedral of the Dormition, Vladimir, 1158-60 (original six pier plan) and 1185-89, expansion with blind arcades.
VII. Venice (Italy): second city of Byzantine world, founded 5th century. Basilica of San Marco, 2nd half 11th century Image 1w/later Gothic additions. Five-domed Greek-cross plan church for Doge's chapel and relics of St. Mark built of lightweight brick covered with marble and mosaic.
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