History
Late republic and early imperial period
Roman baths played a prominent role in the development of dome construction in general and monumental domes in particular. In Pompeii, in the cold rooms of the Stabiane Baths and the Baths of the Forum, modest domes are seen in baths dating from the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.[19][20] These domes have a very conical shape, similar to those of an Assyrian bas-relief found in Nineveh.[21][22] In a tepidarium from the Roman era in Cabrera de Mar, Spain, it has been identified a dome from the mid-2nd century BC. C. which used a refined version of the parallel arch construction found in an earlier Hellenistic bath dome in Sicily.[23] According to Vitruvius, the temperature and humidity of the domed heated rooms could be regulated by raising or lowering bronze discs arranged under an oculus.[24] The domes were particularly well suited to the hot rooms of circular baths to facilitate uniform heating of the walls. However, the general use of domes did not occur before the 1st century AD. C..[The. 1].
Rerum rusticarum libri, Varro's book on agriculture from the 1st century BC. C. already describes an aviary with a wooden dome decorated with the eight winds that is compared, by analogy, with the eight winds represented in the Tower of the Winds, which was built in Athens at approximately the same time. That aviary with its wooden dome could represent a type already fully developed. Wooden domes in general would have allowed very wide spans. Its earlier use may have inspired the development and introduction of large stone domes of unprecedented size.[19] Complex forms of wood were needed to truss and support the dome during construction, and it appears that they eventually became more efficient and standardized over time.[The. 2].
The domes finally reached monumental size in the Roman imperial period.[19] Although traces of the formwork itself have not survived, deformations of the ideal of even in the so-called temple of Mercury at Baiae suggest a centering of eight radiating frames, with horizontal connectors that would support a radial formwork for the low-banked dome.[La. 3] The building, actually a concrete frigidarium for a bathhouse, dates from the late Republic era,[25] or the reign of the first Emperor Augustus (27 BC–AD 14), making it the first large Roman dome. There are five openings in the dome: a circular oculus and four square skylights.[19] The dome has a span of and is the largest known large dome built before that of the Pantheon "Pantheon (Rome)").[26] It is also the oldest preserved concrete dome.[The. 2].
1st century
While there are earlier examples from the republican and early imperial periods, dome construction increased under Emperor Nero and the Flavians during the 1st century AD. C. and the second century. Central-plan halls became increasingly important parts of palace and palatial villa designs from the 1st century onwards, serving as state banquet halls, audience halls, or throne rooms.[Kr. 1] The formwork was arranged horizontally or radially, but there is not enough surviving evidence from the 1st and 2nd centuries to say which was the most common.[La. 2].
The opulent architecture of Emperor Nero's palace (AD 54–68) marks an important development.[27] There is evidence of a dome in his Domus Transitoria at the intersection of two corridors, resting on four large pilasters, which may have had an oculus in the center. In Nero's Domus Aurea, or Golden House, planned by Severus and Celer, the walls of a large octagonal hall transition to an octagonal dome, which then becomes a dome with an oculus.[28][29] This is the oldest known example of a dome in the city of Rome itself.[La. 3].
The Domus Aurea was built after 64 AD. C. and the dome was more than in diameter.[Ad. 1] This octagonal and semicircular dome is made of concrete and the oculus is made of brick. The radial walls of the surrounding rooms counteract the thrust of the dome, allowing the octagonal walls directly below it to have large openings under flat arches and the room itself to be exceptionally well lit. Because there is no indication of mosaics or other facing material being used on the surface of the dome, it may have been hidden behind a tent-like fabric canopy like the pavilion tents of rulers. Hellenistic (and earlier Persian). The oculus is unusually large, more than two-fifths of the room's space, and may have served to support a light lantern or tholos structure, which would have covered the opening. The circular channels on the upper surface of the oculus also support the idea that this lantern, perhaps itself domed, was the rotating dome to which written accounts would refer.[31].
According to Suetonius, the Domus Aurea had a dome that perpetually rotated on its base in imitation of the sky.[32] In 2009 it was reported that the newly discovered foundations of a round room could be those of a revolving domed dining room.[33] It was also reported in contemporary sources that in the palace there would be a roof over a dining room equipped with pipes so that perfume could rain from the ceiling, although it is not known if this would be a feature of the dome itself.[34] The expensive and luxurious decoration of the palace caused such a scandal that it was abandoned shortly after Nero's death and several public buildings such as the Baths of Titus and the Colosseum were built on the site.[35]
The only intact dome from the reign of Emperor Domitian is an example of light in what may have been a nymphaeum in his villa in Albano. It is now the church of Santa Maria de la Rotunda").[Ad. 1] Domitian's Domus Augustana of AD 92 established the use of a half-dome over an apse as an imperial motif.[12] The square chambers of his palace on the Palatine Hill used pendentives to support the domes.[36] His palace had three domes resting on walls with alternating apses and openings. rectangular.[37] It had an octagonal domed hall in the domestic wing.[38] Unlike Nero's similar octagonal dome, its segments extended to the oculus.[12] The dining room of this private palace, called Coenatio Jovis or Jupiter's dining room, had a revolving roof like the one Nero had built, but with stars arranged in the simulated sky.[39].
2nd century
During the reign of Emperor Trajan (r. 98-117), domes and semidomes over exedras were common features of Roman architecture, possibly due to the efforts of Trajan's architect Apollodorus of Damascus, famous for his engineering abilities.[Ad. 2][40] In the year 109 AD. C. two rotundas of diameter were completed as part of the Baths of Trajan, built on the Domus Aurea, and two other exedras of 13 and diameter were built as part of the markets to the northeast of its forum. The architecture of Trajan's successor, Emperor Hadrian (r. 117-138, continued this style. [Ad. 2] Three exedra in diameter in Trajan's baths have coffered ceiling patterns that, as in the later Pantheon, align with lower niches only on the axes and diagonals and, also as in the Pantheon, that alignment is sometimes with the ribs between the coffers, rather than with the own coffers.[40].
The Pantheon in Rome, completed by Hadrian as part of the Baths of Agrippa, has the most famous, best-preserved and largest Roman dome.[41] Its diameter was more than twice the span of any previous known dome.[The. 4] Although considered an example of Hadrian's architecture, there is evidence that the reconstruction of the Pantheon in its present form began under Trajan. Speculation that the architect of the Pantheon was Apollodorus has not been proven, although there are stylistic similarities between its large coffered half-domes in Trajan's Baths and the dome of the Pantheon. Other indicators that the designer could be Apollodorus or someone from its circle that was "closer in artistic sensibility to the era of Trajan than to Hadrian" are the monumental size and the incorporation of small passages in the structure. The dimensions of the building seem to refer to Archimedes' treatise On the Sphere and the Cylinder, the dome may use rows of 28 coffers because the Pythagoreans considered 28 to be a perfect number, and the design balanced its complexity with the underlying geometric simplicity. Dating to the 2nd century, it is an unreinforced concrete dome of 100 mm in diameter that rests on a circular wall or rotunda "Rotunda (architecture)"), 100 mm thick. This rotunda, made of concrete with exposed brick, has a large number of discharge arches and openings. Seven interior niches and the entrance portal structurally divide the wall into eight practically independent pilasters. These additional openings and voids represent a quarter of the volume of the rotunda wall. The only opening in the dome is the brick-clad oculus at the top, 100 mm in diameter, which provides light and ventilation to the interior.[43].
The shallow coffered ceiling of the dome represents a reduction of less than five percent in the mass of the dome and is primarily decorative. The hand-laid aggregate material in the concrete is heaviest at the base of the dome and transitions to lighter materials as the height increases, dramatically reducing stresses in the finished structure. Indeed, many commentators have cited the Pantheon as an example of the "revolutionary possibilities" for monolithic architecture provided by the use of Roman pozzolana concrete. However, the vertical cracks appear to have developed very early, so that in practice the dome acts as a set of arches with a common key, rather than as a single sheet. The outer steps used to compress the "kidneys" of the dome, which would not be necessary if the dome acted as a monolithic structure, may be a recognition of this by the builders themselves. Such buttressing was common in the construction of Roman arches.[43] Cracks in the dome can be seen from the upper internal rooms of the rotunda, but were covered with a cement render on the inner surface of the dome and with patches on the exterior of the building.[44] The roof of the Pantheon was originally covered with gilded bronze tiles, but these were removed in 663 and replaced by Emperor Constans II. replaced with lead roofs.[22][45].
3rd century
The large rotunda of the Baths of Agrippa, the oldest public baths in Rome, has been dated to the Severan period at the beginning of the 3rd century, but it is not known whether it was an addition or simply a reconstruction of an earlier domed rotunda.[Ad. 5]
In the 3rd century, imperial mausoleums began to be built as domed rotundas instead of tumuli or other structures, following the example of similar monuments erected by private citizens. The pagan and Christian domed mausoleums of that era can be differentiated in that the buildings also reflect their religious functions. Pagan buildings are usually two-story, dimly lit freestanding constructions, with a lower crypt area for remains and an upper area for devotional sacrifice. Christian domed mausoleums have a single, well-lit space and are generally adjacent to a church.[56] The ancient St. Peter's Basilica would later be built near a pre-existing domed rotunda from the early 3rd century that may have been a mausoleum. In the 5th century that rotunda would be dedicated to Saint Andrew the Apostle and would join the Mausoleum of Honorius.[Ca. 2][57].
Examples from the 3rd century include the brick dome of Diocletian's Mausoleum and the Villa Gordiani Mausoleum. Villa Gordiani also preserves remains of an oval gored dome. Diocletian's Mausoleum uses small arched brick squinches built from a circular base in a pattern of overlapping scales, called a "stepped squinch dome." Scales were a popular Hellenistic motif adopted by the Parthians and Sassanids, and such domes were probably related to the Persian "horn vaults". In addition to the mausoleum, Diocletian's Palace also has a rotunda near the center of the complex that may have served as a throne room. It has side niches similar to those of an octagonal mausoleum, but were located at the end of an apparently barrel-vaulted room layout. found in later Sassanian palaces.[61]
Masonry domes were less common in the Roman provinces, although the 3rd-century "Temple of Venus" at Baalbek was built with a 120mm diameter stone dome. A cantilevered stone dome, later known as "Arthur's O'on", was located in Scotland, three kilometers north of the Falkirk fort on the Antonine Wall, and may have been a Roman victory monument from the reign of Carausius. It was destroyed in 1743.[62].
The technique of constructing lightweight domes with interlocking hollow ceramic tubes was further developed in North Africa and Italy in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries. By the 4th century, thin, lightweight tube vaulting had become a vaulting technique in its own right, rather than simply serving as a permanent formwork for the concrete. It was used in the first Christian buildings in Italy.[La. 7] The arrangement of these terracotta tubes in a continuous spiral created a dome that was not strong enough for very large spans, but which only required minimal falsework and formwork.[64] The later dome of the Neon Baptistery in Ravenna is an example.[63]
4th century
In the 4th century, Roman domes proliferated due to changes in the way they were built, including advances in forming techniques and the use of brick ribs. The so-called Temple of Minerva Medica, for example, used brick ribs together with stepped rings and lightweight concrete with added pumice stone to form a decagonal dome.[The. 8] The material chosen in construction gradually changed during the 4th and 5th centuries from stone or concrete to lighter bricks in thin shells [Kr. 2] The use of ribs strengthened the structure, allowing the domes to be thinner with less massive supporting walls. Windows were often used in these walls and replaced the oculus as a light source, although reinforcement was sometimes necessary to compensate for the large openings. The Mausoleum of Saint Constance has windows under the dome and nothing but paired columns below, using a surrounding barrel vault to stabilize the structure.[65].
The dome of the Mausoleum of Galerius was built around the year 300 near the imperial palace as a mausoleum or throne room. It was converted into a church in the 5th century.[Kr. 3] Also in Thessaloniki, in the tetrarchy palace, an octagonal light building has been excavated that could have been used as a throne room. It is known that it was not used as a church and was not suitable as a mausoleum, and that it was in use for some period between about 311 and when it was destroyed before about 450. Antioch also had a domed roof, presumably made of wood and covered with gilded lead.[67][Kr. 4] It was dedicated two years after the First Council of Nicaea to "Harmony, the divine power that unites the Universe, Church and Empire." It may have been both the cathedral of Antioch and the court church of Constantine, and the precedent of the later octagonal churches near the palaces of Saints Sergius and Bacchus and Hagia Sophia of Justinian and the cathedral of Aachen of Charlemagne.[Kr. 5] The dome was rebuilt by 537-538 with Daphne cypress wood after being destroyed in a fire. Most church domes in the Syrian region were built of wood, such as the later Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, and the dome of the Domus Aurea which survived a series of earthquakes in the 6th century that destroyed the rest of the building. There is no evidence that the church was rebuilt after the earthquake of 588, perhaps due to the widespread abandonment of many public buildings in what was no longer the capital of the Empire.[68]
Constantine built the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem around 333 as a large basilica with an octagonal structure at the east end, above the cave said to be the birthplace of Jesus. The domed octagon had an outer diameter of 18 metres.[69][70] It was later destroyed and when Justinian rebuilt it, the octagon was replaced by a tri-apse structure.[69]
Centralized buildings with a circular or octagonal plan were also used to construct baptisteries and reliquaries due to the suitability of those shapes to be assembled around a single object.[71] Baptisteries began to be built in the manner of domed mausoleums during the 4th century in Italy. The octagonal Lateran Baptistery or the Baptistery of the Holy Sepulcher may have been the first, and the style spread during the 5th century. Milan") (late 4th century), a domed baptistery in Naples&action=edit&redlink=1 "Baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte (Naples) (not yet redacted)") (4th to 6th centuries) and a baptistery in Aquileia (late 4th century).[ca. 3] Part of a bath complex begun in the early 4th century, the brick church of St. George "Church of St. George (Sofia)") in Sofia was a caldarium that was converted in the mid-5th century. It is a rotunda with four apsidal niches in the corners. The best preserved example of Roman architecture in the city, it has been used as a baptistery, church, mosque and mausoleum over the centuries. The dome rises about 14 m from the ground with a diameter of about 9.5 m. Its original function was as The hypocaust hall is disputed and, based on its shape, the building may have originally been a Christian martyrium. It was partially destroyed by the Huns in 447 and rebuilt in the 11th century.[76]
5th century
By the 5th century, small-scale buildings with domed cross plans existed throughout the Christian world. Examples are the mausoleum of Gala Placidia, the martyrium attached to the basilica of San Simpliciano, and churches in Macedonia "Macedonia (region)") and on the coast of Asia Minor.[Kr. 8] In Italy, the baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte in Naples and the church of Santa Maria della Croce in Casarano contain surviving early Christian domes. In Tolentino, the mausoleum of Catervus was modeled after the Pantheon, but on a quarter scale and with three projecting apses, circa 390-410. The Neon Baptistery at Ravenna was completed in the mid-5th century and there were domes in the 5th-century baptisteries of Padula and Novara. domes, rather than cross vaults.[93] The square bay with an upper sail vault or cupola on pendentives became the basic unit of architecture in the early Byzantine centuries, found in a variety of combinations.[Kr. 8].
The earliest recorded examples of Byzantine domes were erected over the hexagonal hall of the palace of Antiochus, the hexagon at Gülhane, the martyium of Saints Karpos and Papylos), and the rotunda at the Myrelaion.[92] Mary's church "Church of Mary (Ephesus)") in Ephesus, from the 5th century, had small rectangular side halls with sail vaults made of rows of arched bricks. The brick dome of St. Mary's Baptistery was composed of a series of strongly arched southern sections.[94] The church of St. Simeon Stylites probably had a polygonal wooden dome over its central octagon of 95.
In the city of Rome, at least 58 domes are known to have been built on 44 buildings before dome construction ended in the mid-5th century.[ca. 5] The last imperial domed mausoleum in the city was that of Emperor Honorius, built in 415 next to the ancient Basilica of Saint Peter. It was demolished in 1519 as part of the reconstruction of San Pedro, but it had a dome spanning 15.7 meters and its appearance is known from some images.[Ca. 6] The last domed church in the city of Rome for centuries was that of Santo Stefano al Monte Celio around the year 460. It had an unusual central plan and a 22-metre-span dome made with Tubi fittili (domed tubes), a technique that may have been imported from the new western capital of Ravenna. [Ca. 7] Although they continued to be built in other parts of Italy, the domes would not be built again in Rome itself until 1453. [Ca. 8] Other Italian domes from the 5th century are a church of Santa Maria della Croce&action=edit&redlink=1 "Church of Santa Maria della Croce (Casaranello) (not yet written)") in Casaranello") (first half of the 5th century), the chapel of San Vittore in ciel d'oro in the basilica of San Ambrose in Milan, the chapel of Santa Maria Mater Domini in the church of San Felice and Fortunato&action=edit&redlink=1 "Church of San Felice and Fortunato (Vicenza) (not yet drawn up)") in Vicenza and the Byzantine Cuba of Malvagna, Sicily (5th or 6th century) and San Pietro ad Baias (5th or 6th century).[Ca. 9].
6th century
The 6th century marked a turning point for the architecture of domed churches. Since the 4th century, central-plan churches with domes had been built for very particular functions, such as palatial churches or martyria, with a slight extension of their use around the year 500, but the majority of church buildings were wooden-roofed halls with a basilica plan. The church of St. Polyeuctos in Constantinople (524-527) may have been built as a large, lavish domed basilica similar to the Meriamlik church of fifty years earlier—and Emperor Justinian's later Hagia Irene—by Anicia Juliana, a descendant of the former imperial house, although the linear walls suggest a wooden roof, rather than a brick dome.[Kr. 10][100] There is a story that he used the contribution to the public funds that he had promised to Justinian on his accession to the throne to roof his church with gold.[101] The church included an inscription praising Juliana for having "surpassed Solomon" with the building, and it is possible that with this in mind, Justinian would later say of his Hagia Sophia: "Solomon, I have given you defeated!"[102][Fr. 1].
In the second third of the 6th century, church construction by Emperor Justinian used the domed cross unit on a monumental scale, in keeping with Justinian's emphasis on bold architectural innovation. The architecture of its church emphasized the central dome and its architects made the central plan with a brick dome the usual one throughout the Roman East. This divergence with the Roman West from the second third of the 6th century can be considered the beginning of a properly "Byzantine" architecture.[Kr. 11] Basilicas with wooden roofs, which had previously been the usual form of church, would continue to be so in the medieval West.[103].
The oldest of Justinian's domed buildings may be the central-plan church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople, completed in 536. Today it is called the "Little Hagia Sophia" mosque, but it may have been begun five years before that building. The dome rests on an octagonal base created by eight arches on pilasters and is divided into sixteen sections. Those sections on the flat sides of the octagon are flat and have a window at their base, alternating with sections of the corners of the octagon that are scalloped, creating an unusual type of pumpkin dome.[Fr. 2] The date of construction is disputed and may have begun in 532. The alternating scalloped and flat surfaces of the current dome resemble those of Hadrian's Serapeum half-dome at Tivoli, but may have replaced an original drum and dome similar to that of the church of San Vitale in Ravenna. 527, and includes an inscription that mentions "Justinian with a scepter" and "Theodora crowned by God."[105]
Ravenna Vitale"), an octagonal building in Ravenna with a terracotta dome, was begun under Theodoric in 525 and completed under the Byzantines in 547.[106] It may belong to a 4th- and 5th-century school of architecture in Milan.[107] The building is similar to the Byzantine church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus and the later Chrysotriklinos, or throne room and palace church of Constantinople, and would be used as a model for the palatine chapel&action=edit&redlink=1 "Palatine Chapel (Aachen) (not yet drafted)") of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle.[108] Hollow amphorae were placed one inside the other to provide a light structure for the dome and avoid having to provide additional buttresses.[109] It is in diameter.[13] The amphorae were arranged in a continuous spiral, which required a minimum of falsework and formwork, but was not strong enough for large spans.[64] The dome was covered with a wooden roof, which would be the favorite practice of later medieval architects in Italy, although it was unusual at the time.[109]
7th century
The period of iconoclasm, which corresponds approximately to the 7th to 9th centuries, is poorly documented, but can be considered a transitional period.[Ou. 4] Sofia Cathedral "Church of Hagia Sofia (Sofia)") has an uncertain construction date, ranging from the last years of Justinian to the mid-7th century, when the Balkans were lost to the Slavs and Bulgarians. It combines a cruciform basilica plan with a barrel vault with a transept dome hidden externally by the drum. It resembles some Romanesque churches of later centuries, although the type would not be popular in later Byzantine architecture.[Kr. 17].
Destructions caused by earthquakes or invaders in the 7th to 9th centuries appear to have encouraged the development of masonry domes and experimentation with vaults over basilicas in Anatolia. The Sivrihisar Kizil Kilise") has a dome on an octagonal drum with windows on a square platform and was built around 600, before battles in the region in the 640s. The domed church of Mary "Church of Mary (Ephesus)") in Ephesus may have been built in the late 6th century or in the first half of the 7th century with reused bricks. The smaller Dormition church of the Hyacinth Monastery in Nicaea had a dome supported by four narrow arches and dates from before 727. The lobed dome of the Church of St. Clement at Ancyra was supported by pendentives which also included trumpet-shaped arches, a possible indication of the builders' unfamiliarity with pendentives. The upper part of the St. Nicholas in Myra "Church of St. Nicholas (Demre)") at Myra was destroyed, but had a dome. on pendentives on the nave that could have been built between 602 and 655, although it has been attributed to the end of the 8th century or the beginning of the 9th century.[122].
8th century
Part of the 5th-century St. Mary's Basilica at Ephesus appears to have been rebuilt in the 8th century as a cross-domed church, a habitational development of the 7th and 8th centuries and similar to the cross-domed examples of Hagia Sophia in Thessaloniki "Hagia Sophia (Salonica)"), St. Nicholas in Myra "Church of St. Nicholas (Demre)"), St. Clement's in Ankara, and the church of Koimesis in Nicaea.[123].
With the empire's resources dwindling following losses of population and territory, the domes were used as part of new, more modest buildings in Byzantine architecture. However, the large-scale churches of Byzantium remained in good condition. The upper part of the Church of Hagia Irene was completely rebuilt after the Constantinople earthquake of 740". The nave was re-covered with an elliptical dome vault externally hidden by a low cylinder above the roof, in place of the previous barrel-vaulted roof, and the original central dome from the time of Justinian was replaced by one raised above a tall drum with windows. The barrel vaults supporting these two new domes were also extended over the aisles. sides, creating cross-domed units.[124] By reinforcing the dome with wide arches on all four sides, the cross-domed unit provided a more secure structural system.[Ou. 4] These units, with most of the domes raised on drums, became a standard smaller-scale element in later Byzantine church architecture, and all domes built after the transitional period were braced with bilateral symmetry.[Ou. 5] The Church of the Archangels in Sige was replaced in the 19th century, but in the 18th century the original was dated 780.[125].
A small mixed monastic community in Bithynia, near Constantinople, may have developed the "inscribed cross church" during the Iconoclastic period, which would explain the small scale and unification of the plan. The ruined church of St. John at Pelekete Monastery is an early example.[Ou. 6] Monks had supported the use of icons, as opposed to government-appointed secular clergy, and monasticism would become increasingly popular. A new type of privately funded urban monastery developed from the 9th century, which may help explain the small size of the later building.[126]
9th century
Wooden-roofed basilicas, which had been the standard form until the 6th century, would be replaced by domed churches from the 9th century. 7][Ou. 4] Domes resting on circular or polygonal drums pierced with windows eventually became the standard style, with regional characteristics.[Kr. 18].
The "inscribed cross church", with a single dome in the transept or five domes in a quincunx pattern, became very popular in the middle Byzantine period.[Kr. 19] A good example is an early 9th century church at Tirilye"), now called the Fatih Mosque&action=edit&redlink=1 "Fatih Mosque (Tirilye) (not yet redacted)").[Ou. 8] The Nea Ekklesia of Emperor Basil I was built in Constantinople around 880 as part of a major program of construction and renovation of buildings during his reign. It had five domes, which were known from literary sources, but different arrangements have been proposed for them under at least four different floors. One has the domes arranged in a cruciform pattern, such as those of the contemporary church of St. Andrew at Peristerai or that of the much older church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. Others have them arranged in a quincunx pattern, with four smaller domes at the corners of a square and a larger fifth in the center, as part of a cross or cross dome plan. in square.[Ou. 9] It is often suggested that the five-domed design of the Church of Saint Pantaleon "Church of Saint Pantaleon (Gorno Nerezi)"), from 1164, was based on that of the Nea Ekklesia.[Ou. 10].
10th century
In the Middle Byzantine period, more complex plans emerge, such as the integrated chapels of the Monastery of the Lips"), a monastic church in Constantinople that was built around 907. It included four small chapels on the second-floor gallery level that may have been domed.[Ou. 11].
The square cross was the most common church plan from the 10th century until the fall of Constantinople in 1453.[127] This type of plan, with four columns supporting the dome in the transept, was best suited for domes less than in diameter and, from the 10th to the 14th century, a typical Byzantine dome measured less than in diameter. For domes larger than that width, variations in the plan were required, such as the use of pilasters instead of columns and the incorporation of more reinforcements around the core of the building.[Ou. 12].
The palace chapel of the Myrelaion in Constantinople was built around 920 as a square cross church and remains a good example. The oldest square cross in Greece is the church of Panagia in the Hosios Loukas monastery, which dates from the late 10th century, but variations of the type can be found from southern Italy to Russia and Anatolia. They served in a wide variety of roles in the church, including domestic, parish, monastic, palace, and funerary.[Ou. 11].
The distinctive design of undulating eaves for dome roofs began in the 10th century. In mainland Greece, circular or octagonal drums became the most common.[Kr. 18].
11th century
In Constantinople, twelve- or fourteen-sided drums were popular from the 11th century onwards.[Kr. 18] The 11th-century rock-cut churches of Cappadocia, such as Karanlik Kilise and Elmali Kilise in Göreme, have shallow domes without drums due to the dim natural lighting of the cave interiors.[Ou. 13].
The domed octagon plan is a variant of the square cross plan.[126] The oldest extant example is the katholikon in the monastery of Hosios Loukas, with a dome of diameter built in the first half of the 11th century.[128] This hemispherical dome was built without a drum and supported by a remarkably open structural system, with the weight of the dome distributed over eight pilasters, instead of four, and corbels were used to Avoid concentrating weight in its corners. The use of squinches to move from these eight supports to the base of the dome has led to speculation about an origin of the design in Arab, Sassanid or Caucasian architecture, although with a Byzantine interpretation. A similar opening in the design was used in the earlier church of Myrelaion, as originally built, but the katholikon of Hosios Loukas is perhaps the most sophisticated design since Hagia Sophia.[Ou. 14] The smaller monastery of Daphni (monastic church at Daphni"), c. 1080, uses a simpler version of this plan.[Kr. 20].
The katholikon of Nea Moni"), a monastery on the island of Chios, was built sometime between 1042 and 1055 and featured a nine-sided fluted dome rising above the ground (this collapsed in 1881 and was replaced by the slightly taller current version). The transition from the square naos to the round base of the drum is achieved by eight shells, those on the flat sides of the naos being relatively shallow and those in the corners are relatively narrow. The novelty of this technique in Byzantine architecture has led to it being called the "island octagon" type, in contrast to the "continental octagon" type of Hosios Loukas. Speculation about the design influences ranges from the Moorish influence transmitted through the recently built octagonal domed chapels in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem or the Al-Hakimen Mosque. Islamic Cairo, to Caucasian buildings such as the Armenian Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Later copies of the Nea Moni, with alterations, include the churches of Agios Georgios Sykousis, Agioi Apostoli in Pyrghi, Panagia Krina and the Church of the Metamorphosis in Chortiatis").[Ou. 15].
12th century
The larger scale of some 12th-century Byzantine buildings required a more stable supporting structure for the domes than the four slender columns of the square cross type could provide. The Byzantine churches today called the Kalenderhane Mosque, the Gül Mosque, and the Enez Fatih Mosque had domes larger than 1000 mm in diameter and used pillars as part of large cruciform plans, a practice that had been out of fashion for several centuries. A variant of the square cross, the "so-called stunted Greek cross plan", also provides greater support for a dome than the typical square cross plan by using four pillars projecting from the corners of a square naos., instead of four columns. This design was used in the Chora Church of Constantinople in the 12th century after an earthquake destroyed the previous square cross structure.[Ou. 16].
The Pantokrator monastic complex of the 12th century (1118-1136) was built under imperial patronage as three adjoining churches. [197] The south church, with a square cross, has a cross dome over the naos, domed vaults at the corners and a pumpkin dome over the narthex gallery. The north church is also a square cross plan. The middle church, the third to be built, fills the long space between the two previous churches with two oval gourd-type and ribbed domes over what appear to be separate functional spaces. The western space was an imperial mausoleum, while the eastern dome covered a liturgical space. [198].
There is an account written by Nicholas Mesarites") of a Persian-style muqarnas dome built as part of a late 12th-century imperial palace in Constantinople. Called "Mouchroutas Hall", it may have been built as part of a relief of tensions between the court of Manuel I Komnenos and Kilij Arslan II of the Sultanate of Rum around 1161, evidence of the complex nature of relations between the two states. The account, written by Nicholas Mesarites shortly before the Fourth Crusade, is part of a description of John Komnenos' attempted coup in 1200, and may have been mentioned as a rhetorical device to disparage him.[130]
13th century
The late Byzantine period, from 1204 to 1453, has an uncertain chronology of building construction, especially during the Latin occupation. The fragmentation of the empire "Siege of Constantinople (1204)"), beginning in 1204, is reflected in a fragmentation of church design and regional innovations.[Ou. 17].
The church of Hagia Sophia&action=edit&redlink=1 "Hagia Sophia (Trebizond) (not yet drafted)") in the Empire of Trebizond dates from between 1238 and 1263 and has a variation of the quincunx plan. Filled with traditional Asia Minor details and possibly Armenian or Georgian influence, the brick pendentives and drum of the dome remain Byzantine.[Kr. 21].
After 1261, new church architecture in Constantinople consisted mainly of additions to existing monastic churches, such as the Monastery of the Lips") and the Church of Pammakaristos"), and as a result, the building complexes are distinguished in part by an asymmetrical arrangement of the domes on their roofs. This effect may have been an imitation of the earlier triple-church Pantokrator monastic complex.[Ou. 18].
In the Despotate of Epirus, the church of Parigoritissa") (1282-1289) is the most complex example, with a domed octagon core and a domed ambulatory[Ou. 19] Built in the capital of Arta "Arta (Greece)"), its external appearance is reminiscent of a cubic palace. The narthex and the galleries of the upper level have five domes, the central dome of the narthex being one open lantern. This Greek cross octagon design, similar to the previous example at Daphni, is one of several among the Byzantine principalities. Another is found at Hagia Theodoroi in Mistra (1290-1296).[Kr. 22]
14th and 15th centuries
Mistra was ruled from Constantinople after 1262, then was the sovereign capital of the Despotate of Morea from 1348 to 1460.[Kr. 23] IIn Mystras, there are several basilica-plan churches with domed galleries creating a five-domed square cross on a basilica plan at ground level. The Aphentiko at Brontochion Monastery was built c. 1310-1322 and the later church of the Pantanassa Monastery (1428) is of the same type. The arms of the transept are domed at their crossing, and the corner bays of the galleries are also domed to form a staggered pattern. A remodeling of the Metropolis church in Mistra created a further example of the Pantanassa incorporating Western elements in that the domes of its colonnaded portico are externally concealed, and its domes have ribs of rectangular section similar to those at Salerno, Ravello and Palermo.[Kr. 24].
In Thessaloniki, a particular type of church dome developed in the first two decades of the 14th century. It was characterized by a polygonal drum with rounded colonnades at the corners, all brick construction, and faces with three arches staggered from each other around a narrow "single-light window".[131] One of the hallmarks of the Thessalonian churches was the plan of a domed naos with a peristoon wrapped around three sides. [209] The churches of Hagios Panteleimon, Hagia Aikaterine and Hagioi Apostoloi have domes on these ambulatory porticos. [204]The five domes of Hagioi Apostoloi, or Church of the Holy Apostles, in Thessaloniki (c. 1329) make it an example of a five-domed cross-in-square church of late Byzantine style, as is the monastery of Gračanica, built around 1311 in Serbia. [189] The architect and craftsmen of the Gračanica monastery church probably came from Thessaloniki and its style reflects Byzantine cultural influence. [210] The church has been said to represent "the culmination of late Byzantine architectural design".[Ou. 19].
A 15th-century account by a Russian traveler to Constantinople mentions an abandoned room, presumably domed, "in which the sun, the moon and the stars followed one another as in heaven."[129]