College of Environmental Design
Department of Architecture, UC Berkeley
Architecture Slide Library
Arch 170A Fall 1995 James Study Aid 12
I. Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in 312 CE. Which building types did early Christians adapt to their new purposes, why did they choose the ones they did, and how did they change them?
II. Jewish precedent. Temple, Jersualem, Israel. first erected by Solomon c 950 BCE and destroyed in 587 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar. second embellished c 20 BCE by Herod and destroyed in 70 CE by Titus. housed Ark of the Covenant. singularity of temple versus the multiplicity of synagogues for communal prayer services. examples from Capernaum, Israel, c 400 CE, based on Roman basilica type, and from Dura-Europas, Syria, 244 CE ( Image 1, decorated with wall paintings, and including a niche for the sacred scrolls or torah.
II. Unimposing architecture of minority religions in the Roman empire. Early 3rd century CE Mithraeums, from Dura-Europas and Rome. Church (in a renovated house), c 230 CE, Dura-Europas: spaces for ritual meal, for those undergoing instruction in the new faith, and for baptism. Below ground Christian cemetaries in Rome including Catacomb of Domatilla, c 200 CE.
III. Official Christian architecture: the basilican church in Rome. based upon such precedents as Basilica (Imperial audience hall), Trier, Germany, early 4th century. conversion of raised apse from imperial to sacred space in old St. Peter's, Rome, 320s CE. sponsored by Constantine; the earliest state-built Christian church. reuse of older columns for arcade screening nave from aisles. seat of the papacy. model for surviving parish church of Santa Sabina, Rome, 422-32 CE.
IV. Longitudinal basilicas versus centrally planned Santa Constanza, Rome, built c 350 CE, as a mausoleum for Constantine's daughter, and Baptistery, Ravenna, Italy, c 400 and c 450 CE, both decorated with mosaics. development of specifically Christian iconography. combination of two types in Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, begun 325. sponsored by Constantine and designed by Zenobius and Eustathios. built on possible site of Christ's tomb. sequence of spaces: atrium, basilica, second atrium, and round martyrium (Anastasis Rotunda, c 350).
V. Development of monasticism and of Greek cross plan in the east. Martyrium, Qal'at Si'man, Syria, c 480-90, octagonal church with four projecting naves built around column of hermit Saint Simeon Stylites.
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