HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE II

ARCH 1204
YEAR I SEMESTER II

LESSON 2:

BYZANTINE
ARCHITECTURE
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INTRODUCTION
 The early Byzantine architecture heavily influenced all church architecture
throughout Europe, including buildings made in the Gothic or Romanesque
style.
 In southern and eastern Europe, particularly in the regions of Italy, Greece
and Anatolia and later Russia which remained under the rule of the Byzantine
Empire, Roman traditions of design and techniques are perpetuated.
 In Constantinople, vast domed churches such as Saint Haggia Sophia were
constructed, which is both the prototype of the Byzantine stye and its most
prestigious achievement.
 In the 19th century, eclectic architecture borrowed some characteristics of
Byzantine architecture such as in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of
Montmartre in Paris

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 Byzantine architecture developed gradually after the founding of the

Byzantine empire when Constantine I moved the capital of the Roman
Empire to Byzantium, a city later renamed Constantinople, current day
Instabul.
 Byzantine archiecture is based mainly on Roman architecture. The first
Roman Christian churches were Basilican churches. Gradually , the
rectangular plan of Basilicas is replaced by latin cross plans during the Early
Chrsitian period and later replaced by the greek cross during the Byzantine
era.
 Stone is also replaced by brick, Classical orders are used more
freely,decoration is done with mosaics inside and outside of the buildings and
more complex domes are erected. The shape and final style of Byzantine
architecture is characterised by cupolas on brick pendants resting on pillars or
columns.

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CHRONOLOGY
330 AD 1369 AD
Moving capital 565 AD Emperor John V
284 CE
from Rome to Death of Byzantium
Emperor
Byzantium Justinian I became a
Diocletian 476 AD
(Foundation of vassal state to
(divided the Fall of the
the Eastern the ottoman
empire into Western
Roman empire
eastern and Roman
Empire)
western Empire
sections

337 CE
Death of
Constantine I

527 AD
Justinian i
First great ruler 632 AD 1453 AD
of the Beginning of the Arab Fall of
306 CE
Byzantine conquest Byzantine
Constantine I
empire empire
(Reunited the empire
(conquered Ottoman
parts of the conquest under
Western roman Mehmed II
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A map showing Eastern and Western Territories

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A map showing the Byzantine Empire under Justinian.

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INFLUENCING FACTORS
Historical.
 Byzantium is said to have been founded in the seventh century B.C., and was
a Greek colony as early as the fourth century B.C.
 Byzantine architecture is that which was developed at Byzantium on the
removal of the capital from Rome to that city. It includes not only the
buildings in Byzantium, but also those which were erected under its influence,
as at Ravenna and Venice, also in Greece, Russia, and elsewhere.
 During the reign of Justinian (a.d. 527-565) Italy was recovered to the Eastern
Empire, accounting for the style of some of the buildings.
 The Byzantine style was carried on until Constantinople fell into the hands of
the Turks in a.d. 1453, when it became the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

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Geographical.
 Byzantium (renamed Constantinople by Constantine) occupies the finest site
in Europe, standing on two headlands at the strait of the Bosphorus and the
Sea of Marmara.
 It was called "New Rome" by the Turks of Asia, and, like the other Rome in
Italy, it rests on seven hills.
 It occupies an important commercial site, standing at the intersection of the
two great highways of commerce—the water highroad from the Black Sea
into the Mediterranean, and the land high-road from Asia into Europe ; a
position which, from early times, gave it power and influence, especially over
the corn trade carried on with the western merchants.
 The absence of tides and the depth of its harbour rendered its quays
accessible to vessels of large burden.

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The Strait of Bosphorus and the Marmara Sea

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Geological.
 Constantinople possessed no good building stone or even material for making
good bricks, but as far as possible the materials upon the spot had to be
employed.
 Most of the marble used in the new capital was brought from different
quarries round the Eastern Mediterranean, for Constantinople was a marble-
working centre from which sculptured marbles were exported to all parts of
the Roman world.
Climate.
 Owing to Constantinople being hotter than Rome, and to its being further
east, the Romans on settling there altered their method of building to suit the
novel conditions due to climate and their contact with Oriental arts.

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Religion.
 Constantine first made Christianity the state religion.
 The political division that came to pass between east and west was followed
by a separation of churches also.
 This was due to the " Filioque controversy " as to whether the Spirit
proceeded from the Father and Son or from the Father only ; the Eastern
Church, which still claims to be the orthodox church, maintaining the latter,
and the Western the former.
 The iconoclastic movement during the eighth and ninth centuries was in force
and ended in the admission of painted figures in the decoration of churches,
but all sculptured statues were excluded.
 These and other points of difference in ritual have vitally affected Eastern
church architecture up to the present day.

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Social and Political.

 Constantine, whose system of government was an expansion of the dictatorial
methods introduced by Diocletian, removed the capital from Rome to
Byzantium in A.D. 324, the position of the latter city being unrivalled as a
great commercial centre on the trading highway between east and west.
 After his death rival emperors troubled the state, and disputes in the church
were common—the Council of Nice in a.d. 325 being the first of the general
councils called to suppress heresies.
 The eastern emperors lost all power in Italy by endeavouring to force upon
the west their policy of preventing the worship and use of images

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ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
 The general architectural character depends on the development of the dome,
induced by the adoption of circular and polygonal plans for churches, tombs,
and baptisteries. This is in contrast with the Romanesque style, which
developed the vault in Western and Northern Europe.
 The change from the old Roman forms was gradual, but in the course of 200
years the East asserted itself, and under Justinian the Church of S. Sophia (a.d.
532-537) was erected, and remains the greatest achievement in the style with
its interior being perhaps the most satisfactory of all domed examples.
 Although no clear distinction can be stated separating the Early Christian and
Byzantine styles, the Basilican type is characteristic of the former and the
domed church with pendentives of the latter.

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 A Byzantine building consists generally of a brick "shell". The walls of this

shell were finally sheeted internally with marble, and the vaults with colored
mosaics on a golden background. In fact no church was founded during this
period in which mosaic was not intended to be employed.
 The core of the wall was generally of concrete, as in the Roman period, but
the manner in which the bricks of the casing were arranged contributed
greatly to the decoration of the exterior..
 The dome, already referred to, is the prevailing motif or idea of Byzantine
architecture. Domes were now placed over square apartments, their bases
being brought to a circle by means of "pendentives", whereas in Roman
architecture these features were as a rule placed over a circular apartment. It is
important to note that the dome on pendentives was invented and perfected
entirely in the East

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 Windows were now formed in the lower portion of the dome, which in the
later period was hoisted upon a high circular drum, a feature which was still
further embellished in the Renaissance Period.
 In vaulting, porous stones, especially pumice, were used.
 The architecture of the Byzantines was developed by the use of brick in the
fullest manner, especially in domical vaulting.
 The grouping of the smaller domes (Cupolas) round the larger central one
was very effective externally, and one of the most remarkable peculiarities of
Byzantine churches was that the tunnel vault and the dome had no additional
outer covering, but were visible externally; thus in no style does the elevation
so closely correspond with the section as in the Byzantine.

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Monastery of Pantocrator, Marmora

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 From the time when the architect permitted the forms of the vaults and
arches to appear as architectural features in the facades, the regular
entablatures of the Romans were abandoned.
 The columns and capitals were nolonger merely ornamental, as was in Roman
Architecture, but were really supporting the galleries.
 The Classic orders were dispensed with, and the semicircular arches made to
rest directly on columns appropriate to their new purpose of receiving the
springers of arches.

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 The science of construction acquired by the Romans descended to the

Byzantines, for the walls were formed with a brick facing and concrete core—
a method also employed for vaults, bridges, and aqueducts.
 The universal use of brickwork made the Byzantines pay great attention to
their mortar, composed of lime, sand, and crushed pottery, tiles or bricks, and
it remains as hard as that in the best buildings of Rome.
 The interiors were beautified by richly colored marble pavements in opus
sectile or opus Alexandrinum

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BYZANTINE CHURCHES AND THE INTRODUCTION

OF THE GREEK CROSS
 Byzantine churches are famous for having adopted the Greek Cross plan,
which differerentiated them from the latin cross plans adopted in Early
Christian churches.
 This is square plan in which the nave, chancel and transept arms are of equal
length forming a Greek Cross, the crossing usually surmounted by a dome.
 This became the common form in the orthodox church with many churches
in eastern Europe and later Russia adopting this form
 This type of plan was also to later play a part in the development of church
architecture in Western Europe most notably in Bramante’s plan for St.
Peter’s Basilica

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A typical Byzantine Church

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BYZANTINE DOME CONSTRUCTION

 The most distinctive feature was the domed roof. The dome, which has
always been a traditional feature in the east, became the prevailing motif of
Byzantine architecture, which was a fusion of the domical constructions with
the classical columnar style.
 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.
 These domes were frequently constructed of bricks or of some light porous
stone,such as pumice.
 The mystical quality of the light that floods the interior is fascinating. The
canopy-like dome that also dominates the inside of the church rides on a halo
of light from windows in the dome’s base.
 The windows create the illusion that the dome is resting on the light that
comes through them like a « floating dome of heaven ».

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 Light was used as mystic element that glitters in the mosaics and shines on
marbles.

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MATERIALS OF CONSTRUCTION
 The system of construction using bricks, introduced by the Romans, was
adopted by the byzantines.
 Bricks were used to create walls by laying two faces and pouring rubble and
mortar between them. The mortar was made from lime, sand and crushed
brick or pebbles. Every so often, a strengthening layer made of bricks runs
through the entire wall.
 Byantines used a much thicker layer of mortar between bricks, probably as a
cost saving exercise as fewer bricks were used. Unfortunately, as the mortar
dried up, it warped hence so many of byzantine biliding suffer from distortion
or even partial collapse.
 The decorative character of external facades depended largely on the
arrangement of the facing bricks, which were not always laid horizontally, but
sometimes took on different patterns.

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 Bricks were also used for domes, arches and vaults.

 An alternative to brick was ashalar stone blocks, which were popular in the
eastern half of the Byzantine empire. Some buildings, particularly in the 6th
century CE, combined the two and had a lower part in stone cut blocks.
 Marble, an expensive material was generally reserved for columns, capitals,
cornices and decorative features.
 More attention was paid to the interior where walls were covered in plaster,
stucco, thin marble plaques, paintings and mosaics. Domes were covered with
glass mosaics on a golden background.

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EXAMPLES
 Byzantine examples consist mainly of churches and baptisteries. In the
former, although a certain number follow the Basilican type, the majority are
founded on the circular and polygonal plans of the Roman and Early
Christian periods.

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Plan of St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice

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St Sergius and Cacchus, Constantinople

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St. Irene, Constantinople

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St Front, Perigieux, France

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St Mark, Venice

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St. Haggia Sophia

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Historical Background
 The Hagia Sophia, was built by order of Justinian, in a.d.532-537, on the site
of two successive churches of the same name.
 After the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453, It was repurposed as
a mosque. Over time, four minarets (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) were added.
 In 1934 Turkish President. Kemal Atatürk secularized the building, and in
1935 it was made into a museum. In 1985 the Hagia Sophia was designated a
component of a UNESCO World Heritage site called the Historic Areas of
Istanbul, which includes that city’s other major historic buildings and
locations.
 In 2020, President Tayyip Erdoğan made the controversial decision to
convert the building back into a mosque.

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Architecture
 The Hagia Sophia combines a longitudinal basilica and a centralized building
in a wholly original manner
 In plan the building is almost square, but, looked at from within, it appears to
be rectangular, for the great semi domes at east and west prolong the effect of
the roof.
 The plan consists of a central space 10 square metre, bounded by four
massive piers, 2.2 square metre, connected above by semicircular arches, and
supporting a dome 33 metres in diameter.
 East and west are great semicircular spaces, crowned with semi-domes, and
out of these are formed smaller exedras, in their turn covered with semi-
domes. The area thus formed is a great oval-ended nave 80metres by
33metres.

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 Outside this central area are aisles over 15metre wide, in two stories, north
and south, the upper story being for women.
 These aisles bring the main building approximately to a square, which,
excluding the apse and narthex, measures 77metre feet by 72 metre.
 The narthex, to the west of the main building, was set apart for catechumens
and penitents, and forms a grand apartment over 70 metre long by 9 metre
wide; it is in two stories, the upper forming a gallery to the church.
 Further west is the outer narthex and atrium, with marble columns and brick
pillars.
 To the north and south, forming continuations of the four great piers already
mentioned, are massive buttresses, pierced with double arches on the ground
and upper story. These piers take the thrust of the main arches and dome on
the two sides where there are no semi-domes.

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Plan and Section

of the St. Hagia
Sophia

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 The square central space is crowned with a dome, 180 feet above the
pavement, but in itself only 47 feet in height above its base.
 The great piers supporting the dome are of stones, the rest of the building
being of brickwork
 The non-load-bearing exterior walls above the galleries and the base of the
dome are pierced by windows, which in the glare of daylight, give the
impression that the canopy floats on air.

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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Plans.
 Byzantine churches are all distinguished by a great central square space
covered with a dome, supported by means of pendentive.
 On each side extend short arms, forming a Greek cross, which with the
narthex and side galleries make the plan nearly square .
 The narthex was placed within the main walls.
 The essential difference in plan between a Byzantine church and an Early
Christian basilican church are as follows :
− The leading thought in a byzantine church is vertical, by the grouping of domes
round a principal central one, toward which the eye is drawn
While
− The leading thought in an early christain church is horizontal, by means of a long
perspective of colums which direct the eye towardsthe apsidal termination

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Byzantine Church Early Christian Church

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Walls.
 These were often constructed of brick.
 Internally, all the oriental love of
magnificence was developed, marble casing
and mosaic being applied to the walls; hence
a flat treatment and absence of mouldings
prevailed.
 Externally the buildings were left
comparatively plain, although the façade was
sometimes relieved by alternate rows of
stone and brick, in various colors.

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Openings.
 Doors and windows are semicircular headed, but segmental and horse-shoe
arched openings are sometimes seen.
 The windows are small and grouped together .The universal employment of
mosaic in Byzantine churches, and the consequent exclusion of painted glass,
rendered the use of such large windows as the Gothic architects employed
quite inadmissible, and in the bright climate very much smaller openings
sufficed to admit the necessary light.
 Tracery was, in consequence, practically non-existent.
 The churches depend largely for light on the ring of windows at the base of
the dome or the drum which were great feature of this style.

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Doors and windows with semicircular arches, small and grouped openings
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Roofs.
 The method of roofing these buildings was by
a series of domes formed in brick, stone, or
concrete, with frequently no further external
 The Byzantines introduced the dome placed
over a square or octagonal plan by means of
pendentives , a type not found in Roman
architecture.
 In early examples the pendentives were part
of one sphere. Such domes are rare. In the
later type the dome is not part of the same
sphere as the pendentives, but rises
independently from their summits . The early
domes were very flat; in later times they were
raised on a drum or cylinder.
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Columns.
 In the earlier buildings, these were taken from ancient structures, which not
being so numerous in the East as in the neighbourhood of Rome, the supply
was sooner exhausted and thus there was an incentive to design fresh ones.
 Capitals sometimes took a form derived from the Roman Ionic or Corinthian
types, or consisted in the lower portion of a cube block with rounded corners,
over which was placed a deep abacus block which aided in supporting the
springing of the arch.
 Columns were used constructively, but were always subordinate features, and
often only introduced to support galleries, the massive piers alone supporting
the superstructure.

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Different types of Byzantine columns

Columns were structural elements

used to support galleries
Capital with a deep abacus block to support
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Mouldings.
 These were unimportant, their place
being taken by broad flat expanses of
wall surfaces.
 Internally, the decorative lining of
marble and mosaic in panels was
sometimes framed in billet mouldings.
 Externally, the simple treatment of the
elevations in flat expanses of
brickwork, with occasional stone
banded courses, did not leave the same
scope for mouldings as in other styles.

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Ornament.
 The walls were lined with costly marbles with the veining carefully arranged
so as to form patterns, and the vaults and upper part of walls with glass
mosaic having symbolic figures, groups of saints and representations of the
peacock (the emblem of immortal life).
 Mosaic thus was used in a broad way as a complete lining to a rough
structure, and architectural lines were replaced by decorative bands in the
mosaic.
 Greek rather than Roman technique was followed in the carving, due to the
origin of the craftsmen. The carving was mainly executed in low-relief. The
great characteristic of Byzantine ornament as compared with Classical, is that
the pattern is incised instead of seeming to be applied, for the surface always
remained flat, the pattern being cut into it without breaking its outline.

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 Grecian and Asiatic feeling strongly pervades Byzantine ornamentation, and

this is accounted for by the fact that Constantinople was a Greek city, and in
close contact with the East, and Oriental methods.

Low relief carving on column and abacus

Glass mosaic with gold background

Marble wall on the interior of the St. Hagia Sophia

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END

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