A basilica is a type of building, usually a church, that is typically rectangular with a central nave and aisles, usually with a slightly raised platform and an apse at one or both ends. In Europe and the Americas it is the most common architectural style for churches though this building plan has become less dominant in new buildings since the later 20th century. Today the term basilica is often used to refer to any large, ornate church building, especially Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, even if it does not strictly follow this style.

The basilican architectural style originated in ancient Rome and was originally used for public buildings where courts were held, as well as serving other official and public functions. The basilica was centrally located in every Roman town, usually adjacent to the main forum. As the Roman Empire adopted Christianity, the major church buildings were typically constructed with this style and thus it became popular throughout Europe.

Many older Roman Catholic basilicas are Catholic pilgrimage sites, receiving tens of millions of visitors per year. In December 2009 the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City set a new record with 6.1 million pilgrims during Friday and Saturday for the anniversary of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Terminology
The Latin word basilica derives from the Greek βασιλικὴ στοά (basilikè stoá), lit. “royal stoa (walkway)”, originally referring to the tribunal chamber of a king. In Rome the word was at first used to describe an ancient Roman public building where courts were held, as well as serving other official and public functions. To a large extent these were the town halls of ancient Roman life. The basilica was centrally located in every Roman town, usually adjacent to the main forum. These buildings, an example of which is the Basilica Ulpia, were rectangular, and often had a central nave and aisles, usually with a slightly raised platform and an apse at each of the two ends, adorned with a statue perhaps of the emperor, while the entrances were from the long sides.

By extension the name was applied to Christian churches which adopted the same basic plan and it continues to be used as an architectural term to describe such buildings, which form the majority of church buildings in Western Christianity, though the basilican building plan became less dominant in new buildings from the later 20th century. Later, the term came to refer specifically to a large and important Roman Catholic church that has been given special ceremonial rights by the Pope.

Antique hall buildings
In Athens, the official residence of the Archon basileus was traditionally referred to as a basilica, which is why it is often thought that the building type of the basilica was built in Hellenism and then taken up and adapted by the Romans. However, it was apparently only through the Romans that Greece received buildings corresponding to the architectural definition of this concept; Thus, the first datable basilica in Rome by Cato Censorius at the Roman Forum to the side of the Curia Hostilia 185 v. Chr. Erected and called Basilica Porcia. In addition, not all ancient basilicas had the structure that is referred to in architecture as a basilica. The Maxentius Basilica, with its clearly divided aisles, lies on the border of the Abseitensaal, and the Constantine Basilica in Trier has no aisles.

Apsiden already appeared near the ancient basilicas. In the buildings used as market and court halls, they served to house a portrait of a ruler.

Soon, several families of the nobility moved on with similar projects: To the south of the forum lay the Basilica Sempronia, built by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus the Elder, and on the east side of the forum the Basilica Opimii, a work of the consul of 151 BC. Chr., Quintus Opimius.

Particularly magnificent was the Basilica Aemilia, built by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus on the north side of the forum, next to the Station Municipiorum (Envoy of the Municipalities). It became after 14 v. Chr. Renewed from scratch. Opposite it, in the imperial era, stood the Basilica Iulia on the southwest corner of the Palatine, begun by Gaius Julius Caesar, completed by Augustus. She served the sessions of the Centum Viral Court. The largest Roman basilica was the Basilica of Maxentius, which was built around 310 AD east of the Roman Forum. From her one of the colossal aisles has been preserved.

The basilica of Catos was a cuboid room with two narrow sides, one of which, turned against the Forum, formed the front, the other of which had an exedra or apse niche. The middle room was framed on all four sides by two-storey columns, but no higher than the aisles. In front of the facade of the building was a flat-roofed portico.

Later Basilikabauten kept the hall inside, but closed it to various ingredients, such as a double dealing with pillar arcades (Basilica Iulia), the front often came to the long side, and the apse fell away, which also at the Basilica of Vitruvius and Pompeii the case was.

The basilica of Ulpia, on the other hand, had large exedra on both narrow sides; even more varied is that of Maxentius (completed by Constantine the Great), which is quite vaulted, with two apses, one on the narrow side and one on the long side.

The basilica of Trier, restored in 1846 and 1956 and built for the Protestant service, dates back to the same period. Its 69 m long, 31 m wide and 30.5 m high interior is closed to the north by an apse and illuminated by a double row of windows. It was originally the audience hall of the Roman emperors who resided in the city in the 4th century.

The oldest design of the basilica, namely the form of the republican period, then gained further education in the architecture of the private house. Because the large number of wards and the party meetings in the houses of the large required large rooms, there were pillar basilicas in their houses, which mostly retained the plan of the old Basilica Porcia in the main, while the public basilica expanded and redesigned in the manner indicated.

Basilicas were built in the cities of the whole Roman Empire. In Pompeii, for example, there are three moderately sized basilicas side by side on one of the narrow sides of the Forum. Vitruvius describes the basilica built by himself in Fano. The widespread use of the building type led early to the fact that he became the standard form not only for secular, but also for Christian gatherings.

The basilica as a basic form of church building
Architecturally defined, a basilica is a church whose interior is divided by rows of columns or pillars into three or more (usually odd) longitudinal vessels, the middle of which is significantly higher than the lateral ones, so that in the nave a high-rise window zone arises, the clerestory or Lichtgaden (ie masonry with windows supported by columns). The roof of the church consists of a middle part with the roof ridge and side parts over the aisles. Several large basilicas have five instead of three longships, so that two lower aisles line each other’s upper nave.

Early Christian basilicas
Early Christians continued to worship in homes during the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. When – in the course of the Constantinian revolution – Christianity was legitimized, the communities created large rooms for worship services.

The first Christian churches were built in the style of previously profane basilicas; in the apse, where in ancient court or palace basilicas the seat of the judge or emperor was, now the cathedra and the sublime (semicircular arranged on both sides of the cathedra seats for the clergy), usually also the altar were set up. The basic plan of an earlier basilica remained unchanged: a long room, divided longitudinally by two rows of columns into three ships, of which the middle, the nave, the greater breadth and through the niche of the altar (Tribuna, Apse, Absida or Concha) is completed. The nave is not only wider, but also raised to a more significant height than the aisles; the windows embedded in the side walls of the central nave provide for its exposure. The entrance area was often provided with a porch, the portico.

The early Christian basilicas distinguished themselves from pagan temples by simplicity in their execution; a lot of brickwork and little marble, no plastic, no “moving” scenes. The glass mosaics were suggestive (poster function) but from comparatively cheap material. As in Ravenna, depictions of the saints were deliberately not lifelike but “disembodied”. The outer walls were only broken up by the partially large windows. It was not until later that the upper part of the façade was decorated with mosaics.

Larger churches were often preceded by a forecourt (atrium or narthex). In its center was a fountain (Cantharus) for cleaning the hands as a symbol of the purification of the soul. This corresponds to the arrangement of the earlier house churches, where the larger Triclinium for the Eucharistic meal was also in a prominent room on a courtyard opposite the entrance to the house.

Medieval basilicas
As the official religion of the Roman Empire, Christianity quickly became the almighty bearer of Western civilization. Gradually, the character of the basilica in the church changed. This applies to both the floor plan and the equipment.

Cross Basilica
A cross-basilica is formed by a transept of the height and width of the central nave, in front of the altar, after the width of the building and its side walls. Such a plan has the shape of a cross, but was originally not intended to be symbolic, but served to create more space next to the choir during the liturgy. From an aesthetic point of view, the introduction of the transept proved to be very effective, because before that, the interior of the building, before it closes in the altar, appears again in great enlargement, thus clearly emphasizing the sublime meaning of the Sanctuary.

Where the central nave enters the transept, a great arched arch has been led from one wall to the other, resting on protruding colossal pillars, abutting the pillars with which the rows of columns of the ships terminate, and the lateral walls of the transept, This arch, by translating a pagan name into the Christian idea of the victory of Christ over death celebrated by the sacrament of the altar, is called the triumphal arch. In many Gothic churches, the rood screen was located at this point, which separates the chancel from the nave, accessible only to the clergy. In the course of various liturgical forms of this rood screen was again the vista enabling bow and was later removed in some churches again.

Definitions
The term ship always refers to an elongated part of the building in architecture, but in church construction it is quite ambiguous:
By “ship” in the sense of nave, the entire prayer and assembly area of the church building may be meant.
“Ship” as a generic term of nave, aisle and transept may refer to a part of the interior marked by arcades and outer walls.
Ship may be the portion of the church space intended for the church or the laity, in contrast to the choir, which was traditionally reserved for the clergy.
The nave of nave and aisles forms together with the choir, the nave in contrast to the transept (transept) and the transepts (northern and southern).
The entrance to the main altar opposite end (mostly in the west) of the nave, called Narthex in early Christian churches, was designed as a massive particularly massive West, if he should wear bell towers or serve as a bell tower.
A pseudo-basilica is a church whose central nave, although the aisles surmounted by one floor, but the side walls above the arcades are not durchfensterten clerestory.
In a stepped or staggered hall, the central nave is also slightly higher than the aisles, but without the formation of an additional projectile, but the heights of the various vaults overlap each other.
If a nave has flat roofs, central nave windows above the aisles are also possible with the proportions of a staggered hall. In the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona.
A staggered basilica is something completely different, namely a basilica of more than three ships, where the inner aisles are higher than the outer ones, so that there are three or more different ship heights. A significant example of this rare design is the Cathedral of Bourges.
In a gallery basilica aisles are filled with galleries that divide them horizontally into upper and lower rooms. These galleries can be easily constructed, but the gallery can also rest on a vault so that the aisle may have two vaulted levels. Has.
Hall churches with such horizontally divided aisles are called galleries.
A side aisle can also be divided by several galleries over / next / to each other.

The basilica is next to the hall church (one-nave) and the hall church (several ships, which are usually the same height), the most important scheme of early Christian and medieval church building to the 15th, north of the Alps until the 16th century. In the Romanesque and Gothic style, most of the churches were built on an oblong ground plan, including in the form of the Latin cross. Central buildings were a rare exception in the West, but very common among Orthodox churches. It was not until the Renaissance that Catholic and Protestant churches were built in significant numbers as central buildings.

Special forms
Between the 7th and the 10th century, three-church basilicas were usually built within monasteries in Georgia, where the three naves are separated by room-high dividing walls and which are connected only by a door in each wall and often by a passage on the west wall, On both sides of the broad central nave, so narrow altar side rooms were created with round apses on the east wall, which presumably served special liturgical purposes.

Overall, pseudo-basilicas are so numerous in the Middle East that one speaks of oriental basilica instead.

Further development
In the Renaissance and the Baroque, unrestricted views of the main altar were preferred. The trend went to Saalkirchen, both in Protestant new buildings as well as Catholic (see also Gegenreformation). In Catholic new buildings, rows of side chapels were often arranged along the long walls. These aligned across the longitudinal axis of the building space parts below the clerestory are referred to as the sides. In order to absorb the burden of the vault, one no longer used outer buttresses, but pilasters on the insides of the outer walls, especially on churches without sides. Such buildings are called Wandpfeilerkirchen.

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The Abseitensaal is attributed to the Basilica of the Maxentius in Rome. The Italian offside halls of the modern era have their origins with Albertis Sant’Andrea in Mantua and become with Il Gesù in Rome the standard of counter-Reformation church building.

Their hallmarks are the Einschiffigkeit and the continuous Hauptgebälk, under which open the transverse Abseitenkapellen. Their spatial form does not go back to that of the early Christian basilica, although the outer cross-section is the same. This is why basilicas and banqueting halls usually have the same type of façade with low sides and raised middle, mostly crowned by a pediment. One speaks here of cross-sectional facades.

Basilicas in the Renaissance and Baroque periods have often resulted from renovations of medieval buildings.

Only at the time of historicism in the 19th century were basilicas rebuilt. One example is the 1844 built “early Christian” Berlin Jakobikirche by Friedrich August Stüler. In the 19th century, however, there were other technical possibilities and different conceptions of space than in the Middle Ages. In addition to new buildings, which were closely oriented to Byzantine, Romanesque or Gothic models, emerged churches with Gothic exterior, whose interior was not even divided into ships.

Development
Putting an altar instead of the throne, as was done at Trier, made a church. Basilicas of this type were built in western Europe, Greece, Syria, Egypt, and Palestine, that is, at any early centre of Christianity. Good early examples of the architectural basilica include the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem (6th century AD), the church of St Elias at Thessalonica (5th century AD), and the two great basilicas at Ravenna.

The first basilicas with transepts were built under the orders of Emperor Constantine, both in Rome and in his “New Rome”, Constantinople:

“Around 380, Gregory Nazianzen, describing the Constantinian Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople, was the first to point out its resemblance to a cross. Because the cult of the cross was spreading at about the same time, this comparison met with stunning success.” (Yvon Thébert, in Veyne, 1987)
Thus, a Christian symbolic theme was applied quite naturally to a form borrowed from civil semi-public precedents. The first great Imperially sponsored Christian basilica is that of St John Lateran, which was given to the Bishop of Rome by Constantine right before or around the Edict of Milan in 313 and was consecrated in the year 324. In the later 4th-century, other Christian basilicas were built in Rome: Santa Sabina, and St Paul’s Outside the Walls (4th century), and later St Clement (6th century).

A Christian basilica of the 4th or 5th century stood behind its entirely enclosed forecourt ringed with a colonnade or arcade, like the stoa or peristyle that was its ancestor or like the cloister that was its descendant. This forecourt was entered from outside through a range of buildings along the public street. This was the architectural ground-plan of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, until in the 15th century it was demolished to make way for a modern church built to a new plan.

In most basilicas, the central nave is taller than the aisles, forming a row of windows called a clerestory. Some basilicas in the Caucasus, particularly those of Armenia and Georgia, have a central nave only slightly higher than the two aisles and a single pitched roof covering all three. The result is a much darker interior. This plan is known as the “oriental basilica”, or “pseudobasilica” in central Europe.

Gradually, in the early Middle Ages there emerged the massive Romanesque churches, which still kept the fundamental plan of the basilica.

In the United States the style was copied with variances. An American church built imitating the architecture of an Early Christian basilica, St. Mary’s (German) Church in Pennsylvania, was demolished in 1997.

Ecclesiastical basilicas
The Early Christian purpose-built basilica was the cathedral basilica of the bishop, on the model of the semi-public secular basilicas, and its growth in size and importance signalled the gradual transfer of civic power into episcopal hands, which was under way in the 5th century. Basilicas in this sense are divided into classes, the major (“greater”) basilicas and the minor basilicas; there are three other papal and several pontifical minor basilicas in Italy, and over 1,400 lesser basilicas around the world.

Churches designated as papal basilicas, in particular, possess a papal throne and a papal high altar, at which no one may celebrate Mass without the pope’s permission.

Numerous basilicas are notable shrines, often even receiving significant pilgrimages, especially among the many that were built above a confessio or the burial place of a martyr – although this term now usually designates a space before the high altar that is sunk lower than the main floor level (as in the case in St Peter’s and St John Lateran in Rome) and that offer more immediate access to the burial places below.

Equipment
After the model of St. Peter’s Basilica was from the Middle Ages under the main altar of a basilica, which stood in front of the tribune, a small underground chapel, which also allowed a direct reaching the sacred grave located in the restricted choir space under the altar. The shape of this chapel (Confessio, Memoria, crypt) varied and varied from a simple vaulted vault to an architecturally designed room with valuable furnishings.

Examples in Rome are: Lateran Basilica and St. Paul Outside the Walls, Santa Maria Maggiore, San Clemente, San Pietro in Vincoli, Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill, Santa Maria in Trastevere and San Crisogono on the other side of the Tiber.

An example of Ravenna is the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, built by Emperor Justinian I.

Ranking of churches
The papal or major basilicas outrank in precedence all other churches. Other rankings put the cathedral (or co-cathedral) of a bishop ahead of all other churches in the same diocese, even if they have the title of minor basilica. If the cathedral is that of a suffragan diocese, it yields precedence to the cathedral of the metropolitan see. The cathedral of a primate is considered to rank higher than that of other metropolitan(s) in his circonscription (usually a present or historical state). Other classifications of churches include collegiate churches, which may or may not also be minor basilicas.

Major or papal basilicas
To this class belong only the four great papal churches of Rome, which among other distinctions have a special “holy door” and to which a visit is always prescribed as one of the conditions for gaining the Roman Jubilee. Upon relinquishing in 2006 the title of Patriarch of the West, Pope Benedict XVI renamed these basilicas from “Patriarchal Basilicas” to “Papal Basilicas”.

St. John Lateran, also called the Lateran Basilica, is the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.
St. Peter’s, also called the Vatican Basilica, is a major pilgrimage site, built over the burial place of Saint Peter.
St. Paul Outside the Walls, also known as the Ostian Basilica because it is situated on the road that led to Ostia, is built over the burial place of Paul the Apostle.
St. Mary Major, also called the Liberian Basilica because the original building (not the present one) was attributed to Pope Liberius, is the largest church in Rome dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The four papal or major basilicas were formerly known as “patriarchal basilicas”. Together with the minor basilica of St Lawrence outside the Walls, they were associated with the five ancient patriarchal sees of Christendom (see Pentarchy): St John Lateran was associated with Rome, St Peter’s with Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), St Paul’s with Alexandria (in Egypt), St Mary Major with Antioch (the Levant) and St Lawrence with Jerusalem.

Minor basilicas
The privileges attached to the status of minor basilica, which is conferred by papal brief, include a certain precedence before other churches, the right of the conopaeum (a baldachin resembling an umbrella; also called umbraculum, ombrellino, papilio, sinicchio, etc.) and the bell (tintinnabulum), which are carried side by side in procession at the head of the clergy on state occasions, and the cappa magna which is worn by the canons or secular members of the collegiate chapter when assisting at the Divine Office. In the case of major basilicas these umbraculae are made of cloth of gold and red velvet, while those of minor basilicas are made of yellow and red silk—the colours traditionally associated with both the Papal See and the city of Rome.

There are five “pontifical” minor basilicas in the world (the word “pontifical” referring to the title “pontiff” of a bishop, and more particularly of the Bishop of Rome): Pontifical Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, the Pontifical Basilica of Saint Nicholas in Bari, the Pontifical Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua, the Pontifical Basilica of the Holy House at Loreto, the Pontifical Basilica of St Michael in Madrid, Spain.

Until Pope Benedict XVI, the title “patriarchal” (now “papal”) was officially given to two minor basilicas associated with Saint Francis of Assisi situated in or near his home town:

Papal Basilica of St Francis of Assisi
Papal Basilica of St Mary of the Angels in Portiuncola.
The description “patriarchal” still applies to two minor basilicas associated with archbishops who have the title of patriarch: the Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of St Mark in Venice and the Patriarchal Basilica of Aquileia.

Not all Patriarchal cathedrals are minor basilicas, notably: the Patriarchal Cathedral of St Mary Major in Lisbon, Portugal, the Patriarchal Cathedral of Santa Catarina, Old Goa, India.

Basilicas and pilgrimages
In recent times, the title of minor basilica has been attributed to important pilgrimage churches. In 1999 Bishop Francesco Giogia stated that the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City (constructed in the 20th century) was the most visited Catholic shrine in the world, followed by San Giovanni Rotondo and Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil. Millions of pilgrims visit the shrines of Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Fatima. Pilgrimage basilicas continue to attract well over 30 million pilgrims per year.

Every year, on 13 May and 13 October, the significant dates of the Fatima apparitions, pilgrims fill the country road that leads to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima with crowds that approach one million on each day. In December 2009 the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe set a new record with 6.1 million pilgrims during Friday and Saturday for the anniversary of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Source from Wikipedia

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