Related Audiobooks Free with a 30 day trial from Scribd. Charlie Angels. Fida Shamtia. Mbwizzo Mbwizzo. Vishal Thakur. Priti Barik. Sharif Ssebunya. Zeb Zaidi. Tabark Saadi. Nidhi Katkar. Maimuna Sani Umar. Show More. Views Total views. Actions Shares. No notes for slide. Byzantine architecture 1. The empire endured for more than a millennium, dramatically influencing Medieval and Renaissance era architecture in Europe and, following the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in , leading directly to the architecture of the Ottoman Empire.
Peter's Basilica 7. Vitale, Ravenna. The mystical quality of the light that floods the interior has fascinated visitors for centuries.
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. It seems to dissolve material substance and transform it into an abstract spiritual vision. The building was a mosque from 29 May until , when it was secularized. It was opened as a museum on 1 February Sophia architectural form becomes blurred, softened, mosaics covered upper parts of the wall, the lower parts are richly patterned marble.
Today Ankara castle is a highly visited attraction within the otherwise modern city of Ankara. Although Byzantine control of Syria was relatively short-lived when compared to their control of modern-day Greece and Turkey; the Byzantines were still able to create several great works of architecture in the region. The monastery, like so much of the buildings on this list, was created during the rule of Justinian I, also known as Justinian the Great.
Throughout the middle ages, Our Lady of Saidnaya Monastery was an important pilgrimage site, visited by many on the road to Jerusalem. Unfortunately, portions of the building were damaged during the modern Syrian Civil War , but overall the building is still wonderfully preserved despite its age. Like Architecture of Cities? Sign up for our mailing list to get updates on our latest articles and other information related to Architectural History.
Chariot racing was a popular pastime in both the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire. Just like with gladiatorial combat, chariot racing required a large venue to hold the spectators. There are several racetracks all over the remnants of the Roman Empire, most notably the Circus Maximus in Rome and the Hippodrome of Constantinople. Roman chariot races were a popular alternative to Gladitorial Games which were held at Roman Amphitheaters. The hippodrome was used for centuries, with much of the construction occurring in the 3rd and 4th centuries , under the reigns of Septimius Severus and Constantine I.
At the other end of the racetrack is a monument known as the Walled Obelisk, a massive brick and mortar obelisk that was once completely covered with a marble veneer, although today only the bricks remain. Those monks quickly began building a massive fortified monastery.
The living spaces within the building are completely surrounded by defensive walls which tower over the town below. Hagia Sophia, meaning sacred wisdom, was a common name for a religious building within the Byzantine Empire.
The Hagia Sophia in Trabzon Turkey is not nearly as impressive as the one in Istanbul, but it is still a great example of Byzantine Architecture. Construction began in and at this time Trabzon, formerly known as Trebizond, was actually part of a separate nation, known as the Empire of Trebizond.
The Empire of Trebizond formed after the Sack of Constantinople in Today the Hagia Sophia of Trabzon stands only about feet meters from the shores of the Black Sea and is one of several notable Byzantine buildings within the modern city. Nestled on a steep cliff face 28 miles 46 km north of Trabzon Turkey, the Sumela Monastery is a religious building that was founded in CE , during the reign of Theodosius I. The building was abandoned and rebuilt several times over the centuries, including during the reign of Justinian I.
Most of the architecture that we see today dates from the time of the Empire of Trebizond, a successor state of the Byzantines that flourished from the 13 th to 15 th centuries.
The monastery utilizes a large natural cave in the side of the cliff which creates a secluded space. After the area around Sumela Monastery was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, the Ottoman Sultans granted special freedoms to the monastery and its inhabitants. This allowed it to flourish as a center of culture and learning while still under Turkish rule.
Interested in the architecture of Ancient Rome? Here are some of our related articles:. Karaman Castle is a large medieval castle fortification located in Karaman, Turkey. The original construction date for the castle is unknown, but historians believe it was built over a long period from the 11 th to 12 th centuries. The castle had three concentric rings of walls, the innermost being the tallest and strongest. In the late 12 th century Karaman was captured by the Seljuk Turks, and the Byzantines retreated back toward their capital, Constantinople.
Today the Castle is a popular tourist destination within the city of Karaman, and the area within the walls is used as a public park. Another work of Byzantine Architecture from the golden age of the empire is the Euphrasian Basilica.
Built under the rule of Justinian I, the church is one of the best examples of Byzantine Building in all of modern Croatia. The church itself, similar to others in Ravenna, has a linear basilica-style floorplan. The apse of the church is known for its particularly striking Byzantine Mosaics. Although mosaics had been used for thousands of years, the Byzantines made certain technological advances to the craft. Byzantine Mosaics were extremely influential among several other art forms over the centuries.
The church was named for the patron saint of the city, Saint Demetrius. The overall design is a five aisled basilica, which is unique as many of the Byzantine Basilicas that survived to modern times have three aisles. The church contains a few examples of Byzantine Mosaics, but unfortunately, much of the interior decorations were lost during the Ottoman Period, when the building was converted into a mosque. During the great Thessaloniki fire of , the church was critically damaged.
Today the church is only standing thanks to a massive rebuilding project that took place after the fire. The Chora Church is another great example of Byzantine Architecture located within the city of Istanbul. The church was nicknamed Chora Church, to indicate it was built outside the defensive fortifications in the 4th century CE.
However, the Theodosian wall, built in the 5th century , enclosed the church and surrounding areas. The architecture of the church that we see today was rebuilt in the 11th century after the previous building was damaged in an earthquake. The mosaics are some of the best-preserved in Istanbul, although they have seen a lot of erosion over time. Over the past 70 years, experts have been painstakingly restoring the Chora Church and all of its interior decorations.
Even though the Chora Church has a relatively small footprint compared to other impressive buildings in Istanbul, the mosaics and intricate stonework inside are well worth a visit. The Sangarius bridge is one of a handful of surviving bridges built by the Byzantine Empire. During the reign of Justinian I, the bridge was built over the Sakarya River. The bridge spans over feet meters and sits on 7 larger central arches and 5 smaller outer arches.
It was built using the same techniques as many other medieval bridges that were built later on. Justinian the Great commissioned the bridge as a way to make travel to the eastern provinces of the empire easier. The bridge allowed troops and supplies to make their way from the capital out toward Anatolia much faster.
Although most of the bridge used to be over the wide Sakarya River, the course of the river has changed over the centuries and now most of the bridge sits over dry land. The church was completed during the reign of Leo III. The Hagia Sophia of Thessaloniki is built using a Greek Cross-type plan, replicating several other churches throughout the Byzantine Empire.
Although partially destroyed in the great fire of Thessaloniki in , much of the original stonework and mosaics remain. The dome, roof, and many interior decorations were rebuilt after the fire. The castle has a complex history, with layers of walls and towers built in the 6 th century under Justinian I, the 14 th century under John V, and in the 17 th and 18 th centuries under the Ottoman Empire.
The seaside fortress the most formidable fortification on the entire island. The castle grounds take up more than 60 acres of land 0. The fortifications of Trebizond were a series of walls, towers, gates, and bridges that all surrounded the medieval center of the city. Some portions date from the Roman period, but much of the construction was also done during the reign of the Byzantine Empire, as well as the Empire of Trebizond.
According to tradition, St. Luke the Evangelist, one of the original twelve apostles, painted the image of the Madonna and Child Jesus when they miraculously appeared to him. The Monastery of the Panaghia Hodegetria in Constantinople was built to house a now-lost icon believed to be St. Luke's painting. As art historian Robin Cormack noted, it became "perhaps the most prominent cult object in Byzantium. Acheiropoieta were often credited with contemporary miracles.
The Image of Edessa was believed to have come to the divine aid of the city of Edessa in its defense against the Persians. The central image of Christ's head, known as the Mandylion in the Byzantine tradition, recalled the image of Christ's face imprinted on a cloth while he walked to the place of his crucifixion.
Worshippers believed they were in the presence of the divine, as art historian Elena Boerck wrote, "Icons, unlike idols, have their own agency. They're interactive images, in which the divine is present. By the 8 th century, the Byzantine Empire was under pressure and often at war, and in this tense climate the controversy over the spiritual validity of icons erupted.
Motivated by the belief that recent events, including military defeats and a volcanic eruption in the Aegean Sea in , were God's punishment for what he called, "a craft of idolatry," the Emperor Leo III officially prohibited religious images in and launched a movement called Iconoclasm, meaning "breaking of icons.
The Iconoclasts felt that no icon could portray both Christ's divine and human nature, and to convey only one aspect of Christ was a heresy. Those who supported icons argued that, unlike idols which depicted a false god, the images simply depicted the incarnate Christ and that the images derived their authority from Acheiropoieta. By inserting himself into the debate, the Emperor substituted imperial decree for religious authority, undercutting the influence and power of the church.
Subsequently, the state violently supressed monastic clergy and destroyed icons. The era came to an end with a change in imperial power. Following the death of her husband, the Emperor Theophilus, in , the Empress Theodora took the throne and, as she was passionately devoted to the veneration of icons, summoned a council that restored icon worship and deposed the iconoclastic clergy. The occasion was celebrated at the Feast of Orthodoxy in , and icons were carried in triumphal procession back to the various churches from which they had been taken.
Nonetheless, the Iconoclastic Controversy had a notable impact on the later development of art, as the councils that restored the worship of icons also formulated a codified system of symbols and iconographic types that were also followed in mosaics and fresco painting. The Middle Byzantine era is often called the Macedonian Renaissance, as Basil I the Macedonian, crowned in , reopened the universities and promoted literature and art, renewing an interest in classical Greek scholarship and aesthetics.
Greek was established as the official language of the Empire, and libraries and scholars compiled extensive collections of classical texts. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Photios was not only the leading theologian but has been described by the historian Adrian Forescue as "the greatest scholar of his time. The result was, as Janson and Janson wrote, "an almost antiquarian enthusiasm for the traditions of classical art," displayed in works like the illuminated manuscript, the Paris Psalter c.
Throughout Europe, Byzantine culture and art was seen as the height of aesthetic refinement, and, as a result, many rulers, even those politically antagonistic to the Empire, employed Byzantine artists. In Sicily, which had been conquered by the Normans, Roger II, the first Norman King, recruited Byzantine artists and, as a result, the Norman architecture that developed in Sicily and Great Britain, following the Norman Conquest in , profoundly influenced Gothic architecture.
Hundreds of Byzantine artists were also employed at the Basilica of San Marco in Venice when construction began in He employed artists from Constantinople at the St. Sophia's Cathedral he built in Kiev in Notable examples of Macedonian Renaissance art were also created in Greece, while the influx of Byzantine artists influenced art throughout Western Europe as shown by the Italian artist Berlinghiero of Lucca's Hodegetria c.
Famed for its wealth and artistic treasures, Constantinople was cruelly sacked and the Empire conquered in by the Crusade Army and Venetian forces under the Fourth Crusade. The brutal attack upon a Christian city and its inhabitants was unprecedented, and historians view it as a turning point in medieval history, creating a lasting schism between the Catholic and Orthodox churches, severely weakening the Byzantine Empire and contributing to its later demise when conquered by the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
Many notable artworks and sacred objects were looted, destroyed, or lost. Some works, like the Roman bronze works of the Hippodrome, were carried off to Venice where they are still on display, while other works, including sacred objects and altars as well as classical bronze statues, were melted down, and the Library of Constantinople was destroyed. Though the Latins were driven out by , Byzantium never recovered its former glory or power.
Following the Latin Conquest, the Late Byzantine era began to renovate and restore Orthodox churches. However, as the Conquest had decimated the economy and left much of the city in ruins, artists employed more economical materials, and miniature mosaic icons became popular. In icon painting, the suffering of the population during the Conquest led to an emphasis upon images of compassion, as shown in sufferings of Christ.
Artistic vitality shifted to Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece, where regional variations of icon painting developed. Byzantine art also influenced contemporaneous art in the West, particularly the Sienese School of Painting and the International Gothic Style, as well as painters like Duccio in his Stroganoff Madonna Known for its central plan buildings with domed roofs, Byzantine architecture employed a number of innovations, including the squinch and the pendentive.
The squinch used an arch at the corners to transform a square base into an octagonal shape, while the pendentive employed a corner triangular support that curved up into the dome. The original architectural design of many Byzantine churches was a Greek cross, having four arms of equal length, placed within a square.
Later, peripheral structures, like a side chapel or second narthex, were added to the more traditional church footprint.
In the 11 th century, the quincunx building design, which used the four corners and a fifth element elevated above it, became prominent as seen in The Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki, Athens, Greece. In addition to the central dome, Byzantine churches began adding smaller domes around it.
Byzantine architecture was informed by Poikilia , a Greek term, meaning "marked with various colors," or "variegated," that in Greek aesthetic philosophy was developed to suggest how a complex and various assemblage of elements created a polysensory experience. Byzantine interiors, and the placement of objects and elements within an interior, were designed to create ever changing and animated interior as light revealed the variations in surfaces and colors. Variegated elements were also achieved by other techniques such as the employment of bands or areas of gold and elaborately carved stone surfaces.
For instance the basket capitals in the Hagia Sophia were so intricately carved, the stone seemed to dematerialize in light and shadow. Decorative bands replaced moldings and cornices, in effect rounding the interior angles so that images seemed to flow from one surface to another.
Photios described this surface effect in one of his homilies: "It is as if one had entered heaven itself with no one barring the way from any side, and was illuminated by the beauty in changing forms
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