0 Byzantine

asha.devadas2@gmail.
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History of Architecture - I
Module III, September 2018
Asha Devadas
Dept. of Architecture & Planning
NIT Calicut
Syllabus-HoA I
• Module 1- Prehistoric
• Module 2- Classical
• Module 3- Byzantine, Romanesque
• Module 4- Gothic, Renaissance
asha.devadas2@gmail.com
Timeline-Architecture (HoA-I recap)
11,600BC-3,500BC 850AD-976AD
Prehistoric Classical
1 2 3 4
Ancient Byzantine
Egypt 527AD-565AD
3050BC-900BC
Timeline-Architecture (Medieval Architecture)
contd…
800-1200 AD 1400-1600 AD
Roman- Renai- 1650-1790 AD
esque ssance Rococo
Gothic Baroque
1100-1450 AD 1600-1830 AD
Timeline-Architecture (Modern Architecture)
contd…
1730-1925 AD 1905-1930 AD
Neoclassicism Neo Gothic
Art Nouveau Art Deco
1890-1914 AD 1925-1937 AD
Timeline-Architecture (Modern Architecture)
Early 20th century (1900s) 21st century
Modernist Neo-Modernism
Postmodernism
Late 20th century (1970s onwards)
Roman Empire
Roman Empire
Byzantine Architecture
• Byzantine architecture is a style of building that began in Constantinople;

spread throughout the fourth, fifth and sixth century and flourished under
the rule of Roman Emperor Justinian between A.D. 527 and 565.
Byzantine Architecture
• Period of Byzantine Architecture: From 330 A.D. To 1453 A.D.
• Byzantium was the earlier capital of the Roman Empire.
• Emperor Constantine built a new administrative capital to the east, on the
Bosphorus river, called Constantinople.
• Byzantium - renamed Constantinople, also called (New Rome)
• It was also alternately known as the Eastern Roman Empire.
History
• Christianity began to flourish - after the Edict of Milan in A.D. 313,
• Roman Emperor Constantine (c. 285-337) announced his own Christianity,
which legitimized the new religion.
• With religious freedom, Christians could worship openly and without threat,
and the young religion spread rapidly.
• The need for places of worship expanded as did the need for new
approaches to building design.
• Hagia Irene in Istanbul, Turkey is the site of the first Christian church ordered built
by Constantine in the 4th Century.
HAGIA IRENE, ISTANBUL
History
• Christianity influenced developments such as the conversion of the secular
basilica into a magnificent church with an impressive domed ceiling.
• Byzantine buildings continued to employ the Classical orders but old pagan
buildings were used as quarries to provide eclectic stone pieces for new
structures.
• The pagan temples - fell into disuse,
• Their materials were reused - new structures with an eclectic mix of columns and
capitals within the same structure,
• uniformity of classical buildings was abandoned.
Early Byzantine Architecture
• In the early Byzantine period - ecclesiastical architecture.
• Two major types of churches, however, can be distinguished:
• the basilica or axial type, with a nave flanked by colonnades terminating
in a semicircular apse and covered by a timber roof; and the stone-
vaulted centralized church, with its separate components gathered under
a central dome.
• The second type the stone-vaulted circular or centralized church was
dominant throughout the Byzantine period.
• characterized especially by massive domes with square bases and rounded
arches and spires and much use of glass mosaics.
Characteristics
Plan
• Original Byzantine churches are square-shaped with a central floor plan.
• Their combination of the basilica and symmetrical central-plan (circular or
polygonal) religious structures resulted in the characteristic Byzantine
Greek-cross-plan church, with a square central mass and four arms of equal
length.
• Early Byzantine churches - dominant center dome of great height, rising
from a square base on half-dome pillars or pendentives.
• 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.
Characteristics
Dome
• The grouping of small domes or semi-domes around the large central dome.
Characteristics
• Constructed of bricks or of some light stone, such as pumice, or even of
pottery, as at S. Vitale, Ravenna.
• Byzantine domes and vaults were, it is believed, constructed without
temporary support or "centering " by the simple use of large flat bricks.
• Windows were formed in the lower portion of the dome which, in the later
period, was hoisted upon a high "drum"
Characteristics
• Domes and apses by coloured mosaics, which were of glass
rendered opaque by oxide of tin.
• This use of rich marbles and mosaics resulted in the rounding of angles and
in an absence of mouldings and cornices,
• The mosaic designs and pictures might continue uninterrupted over wall
surfaces, piers, arches, domes, and apses
Characteristics
Walls
• These were often constructed of brick.
• Internally, marble casing and mosaic being applied to the walls;
• Externally the buildings were left comparatively plain, although the
facade was sometimes relieved by alternate rows of stone and brick,
in various colors.
Characteristics
Openings
• Doors and windows are semicircular headed, but segmental and horse-shoe
arched openings are sometimes seen.
• The windows are small and grouped together.
• Clerestory - The churches depend largely for light on the ring of windows at
the base of the dome, or in the "drum," or circular base on which the dome
is sometimes raised, and on openings grouped in the gable ends.
• Such windows, grouped in tiers within the semicircular arch beneath the
dome, are a great feature in the style.
• Portions of the windows are occasionally filled with thin slabs of translucent
marble.
Characteristics
Characteristics
Interior Ornamentation
• 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.
• One surface melts into another as the mosaic sheet creeps from wall, arch,
and pendentive up to the dome, and the gold surfaces being continued as a
background to the figures, unity of surface is always maintained.
Characteristics
• Lofty and towering interior spaces, with rich and
luxurious decoration.
• The columns were made of marble, and displayed
beautiful inlay work.
• Vaults - filled with various mosaics.
• The ceilings were sometimes coffered using gold.
Building Materials
• The Byzantines employed bricks for many buildings, and it
became the basic element of construction.
• A little bigger than Roman bricks- square and measured up to
38 cm (15 inches) along each side with a height of up to 6.5
cm (2.5 inches).
• The system of construction in concrete and brickwork introduced by the
Romans was adopted by the Byzantines.
Building Materials
• 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.
• At regular intervals, a strengthening layer made wholly of bricks runs
through the entire wall.
• Unlike Roman walls, the Byzantine version did not use a concrete
(pozzolana) core, and so if the facing became damaged, then, eventually, so
too did the core.
• Brickwork, moreover. lent itself externally to decorative caprices in patterns
and banding, and internally it was suitable for covering with
marble, mosaic, and fresco decoration.
Building Materials
• Another difference is Byzantine builders used a much thicker layer of
mortar between bricks, probably as a cost-saving exercise as fewer bricks
were then needed.
• An unfortunate consequence of this is that as the mortar dried, it warped,
and so many Byzantine buildings suffer from distortion or even partial
collapse.
• Bricks were also used for domes, arches and vaults, often then employing
bricks of double the standard size.
Building Materials
• An alternative to brick was ashlar stone blocks, which were more 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 brick and an upper part in stone cut blocks.
• Marble, an expensive material, was generally reserved for columns, capitals,
cornices, architraves, and decorative features such as door frames, window
grills, and paving.
Building Construction
• 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
• the pendentive.
Building Construction
Squinch
• Squinch, is an architectural feature by
which a square or polygonal room has its
upper corners filled in to form a support
for a dome:
• by corbelling out the courses of
masonry, each course projecting
slightly beyond the one below; by
building one or more arches diagonally
across the corner or
• by building in the corner a niche with
a half dome at its head or
• by filling the corner with a little
conical vault that has an arch on its
outer diagonal face and its apex in the
corner.
Building
Construction
Pendentive
• A curved triangular segmental
surface or construction for joining
the round base of a masonry
dome or opening to a square
structure beneath.
• These segments fill up all the
upper corners of a room.
• Therefore, they form a strong
circular support at the base of a
dome.
• Pendentives were utilized to form
a circular dome over a square
room, or an elliptical dome over a
rectangular room.
Examples
Hagia Sophia
• Hagia Sophia - Church of the Holy Wisdom.

• Hagia Sophia was completed in a short period of five years, under the
direction of two architects from Asia Minor, Anthemius of Tralles and
Isidorus of Miletus,in the year 537.
Hagia Sophia
• It was built in 532-537 CE during the reign of Justinian I (r. 527-565
CE)
• The building is unique and was never matched in either size or design
by any subsequent Byzantine building.
Hagia Sophia
Plan
• In plan it is almost square,
but looked at from within, it
appears to be rectangular
• Its basic rectangular shape
measures 74.6 x 69.7
metres (245 x 229 ft.)
• on the ground there are
three aisles, separated by
columns with galleries
above.
• At either end great piers
rise up through the galleries
to support the dome.
Hagia Sophia
Plan
• Excluding the two
narthexes and the large
atrium, the basilica
measures 70 x 75 m (229 x
245 ft) .
• The atrium measures 48 x
32 m (157 x 106 ft) and the
total length of the
construction measures 135
m (442 ft).
• The narthex outside at the eastern part of atrium is enclosed, and the
inner narthex is entered by 5 doors, and from this inner narthex there are
9 doors to the nave.
Hagia Sophia
Dome
• A vast central dome rises
56 m (185 ft) from ground
level.
• dome measures 31.8
metres in diameter
• Domed rests on four
massive arches with four
supporting pendentives.
• half domes at east and west
either sides of the central
dome.
Hagia Sophia
Dome
• The windows at the bottom
of the dome are closely
spaced, visually asserting
that the base of the dome is
insubstantial and hardly
touching the building itself.
• The jambs or sides of the
windows lined with gold
mosaic.
• As light hits the gold it
bounces around the
openings and eats away at
the structure and makes
room for the imagination to
see a floating dome.
Hagia Sophia
• Above the galleries are curtain walls (non-load-bearing exterior walls)
at either side, pierced by windows, and there are more windows at
the base of the dome.
• The columns are of finest marble, selected for their colour and
variety, while the lower parts of the walls are covered with marble
slabs.
Hagia Sophia
• The interior is lined with

enormous marble slabs which
may have been chosen and
designed to imitate moving
water.
Hagia Sophia
• Originally the nave was lined with intricate Byzantine mosaics which
portrayed scenes and people from the Gospels.
• This includes the mosaic on the main dome which spanned the
whole ceiling and is now covered by remarkable gold calligraphy.
Hagia Sophia
• On the floor of the nave there is the Omphalion (navel of the earth),
a large circular marble slab which is where the Roman and Byzantine
Emperors were coronated.
Examples BASILICA-OF-SAN-VITALE, ITALY
Basilica-of-San-Vitale, Italy
• Construction of the Church of San Vitale started in AD 525 but
completed around AD 547 under the reign of Emperor
Justinian the Great.
• The church has an octagonal
center with a central dome.
• This octagon is surrounded
by high arches, which give
access to a series of
arcades.
• This gives the building -
lightness, in terms of
illumination and building
structure.
• The other seven arches form
big exedras, divided in two
orders of arches over
columns.
• Two stepped towers are
added,
• the porch on the façade and
the
• apse with two cylindrical
bodies at the rear.
Dome
• The central dome measures 15.70 m and is typically for this period
made of rings of clay pipes.
• Outside, the dome is hidden by a pyramid roof - a higher octagonal
tower (tiburio, or crossing tower)
Building Materials:
• The walls are made with bare soft bricks from the time of Justinian,
covered with a layer of lime of the same thickness.
• The whole interior has a rich decoration of precious marble and
mosaic.
Basilica-of-San-
Vitale, Italy
Column
• Capitals - consisted of a cube
block in the lower portion,
over which was placed a deep
abacus block, sometimes
called a "dosseret".
• The capitals of the columns -
delicately sculpted in relief
and fretwork.

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asha.devadas2@gmail.

Early 20th century (1900s) 21st century

• Byzantine architecture is a style of building that began in Constantinople;

• Hagia Sophia - Church of the Holy Wisdom.

• The interior is lined with

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