Influence of Byzantine architecture

Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, also known as the Later Roman or Eastern Roman Empire. Byzantine architecture was mostly influenced by Roman and Greek architecture. It began with Constantine the Great when he rebuilt the city of Byzantium and named it Constantinople and continued with his building of churches and the forum of Constantine. This terminology is used by modern historians to designate the medieval Roman Empire as it evolved as a distinct artistic and cultural entity centered on the new capital of Constantinople rather than the city of Rome and environs. The empire endured for more than a millennium. Its architecture dramatically influenced the later medieval architecture throughout Europe and the Near East, and became the primary progenitor of the Renaissance and Ottoman architectural traditions that followed its collapse.

Overview
Early Byzantine architecture drew upon earlier elements of Roman architecture. Stylistic drift, technological advancement, and political and territorial changes meant that a distinct style gradually resulted in the Greek cross plan in church architecture.

Buildings increased in geometric complexity, brick and plaster were used in addition to stone in the decoration of important public structures, classical orders were used more freely, mosaics replaced carved decoration, complex domes rested upon massive piers, and windows filtered light through thin sheets of alabaster to softly illuminate interiors. Most of the surviving structures are sacred in nature, with secular buildings mostly known only through contemporaneous descriptions.

Featured examples
Constantinople
As the capital of the Byzantine Empire and residence of the Byzantine emperors , as well as the seat of the patriarch of Constantinople and the Orthodox Church, the city of Constantinople (now Istanbul, in Turkey), concentrates a large number of temples, churches , cathedrals and other religious or civil buildings belonging to Byzantine architecture, and this throughout the three periods of that style, from its birth to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 in the hands of the Ottoman Empire .

Church of Saints Sergio and Bacchus

The first work of Byzantine architecture, dated in the first third of the sixth century, is the church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus , in Constantinople (527-536). It is a central square building with octagon in the center, 3 covered by a dome crowned on eight pillars and nave in its environment.

The church sometimes receives the name of small Santa Sofia (although in fact it is some years previous to Santa Sofia), and at the moment it has been transformed into mosque . It is located in the current Eminönü district of Istanbul, not far from the Sea of Marmara , and from its narthex can be seen that of the church of Saint Sophia , and vice versa. At the time, it was one of the most important religious buildings in the city of Constantinople.

Due to the great similarity with the church of Santa Sofia, it is suspected that the project of the building was the work of the same architects, Antemio de Tralles and Isidoro de Mileto , and that the building itself was really nothing more than a kind of general rehearsal for the future construction of the church of Santa Sofia.

The construction work in the building was executed with the usual architectural techniques of the time and place, using bricks subject to layers of mortar , conferring almost the same resistance capacity to the same as that of the brick layers. The walls were reinforced by bands formed by small blocks of stone. The building, whose construction plan was consciously repeated in the church of San Vital in Ravenna , has the shape of an octagon inscribed in an irregular square . It is covered by a drum dome 20 m high, which rests on eight columns. The narthex is on the west side.

Inside the building there is a beautiful colonnade of two heights, which occupies the north side, and which contains an inscription formed by twelve Greek hexameters consecrated to Emperor Justinian I , his wife Theodora and St. Sergius , who was the patron saint of soldiers of the Roman army . The lower floor has 16 columns, while the upper floor has a total of 18. Many of the capitals of the columns still present the monograms of Justinian and Theodora. In front of the building, there are porticos and a vestibule , already added under Ottoman rule, as well as the small garden, the well to supply water for ablutions and some merchants’ shops. To the north of the building there is a small Muslim cemetery, as well as the old baptistery .

Church of Santa Irene
At the same time as the previous one, the first half of the 6th century , corresponds the rectangular church with two domes of Santa Paz or Santa Irene (in Greek Αγία Ειρήνη, Hagia Irene), also in Constantinople, and which is currently destined to museum. It is located between the church of Santa Sofia and the already much later Topkapi palace .

The first church of St. Irene was built under the reign of Emperor Constantine I the Great in the fourth century, being the first of the churches of the city of Constantinople. It was the scene of particularly hurtful debates between Arians and Trinitarians in the context of the theological confrontations between the two. In fact, it was precisely in the church of Santa Irene that the second Ecumenical Council was celebrated in 381. On the other hand, it was the seat of the patriarchate of Constantinople before the church of Saint Sophia was built.

The original church was burned down in 532 during the Niká rebellion, 3 and Justiniano I had it rebuilt. Part of the vault , executed with precipitation, sank shortly after, to which a fire was added in 564. After a new destruction occurred due to an earthquake in 740, Hagia Irene was largely rebuilt, in the reign of Constantine V , with what in its current form, the building that has reached us corresponds to the eighth century.

The church of St. Irene is a perfect example to illustrate the passage of the basilica-style churches to a Greek cross plan inscribed in a square. Hagia Irene is the only one of the Byzantine style churches whose original atrium has reached us. The basilica, covered by a vault and equipped with two domes, culminates on its eastern side with three large windows with a semicircular arch open in the apse.A large cross dominates the narthex, in the place where according to the Byzantine architectural tradition was located the Theotokos , which is a perfect example of iconostasis.

After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, it was used as an armory by the Janissaries , and was refurbished in 1846 as a Turkish Museum. In 1875, due to lack of space, the art collection was moved to the Topkapi palace, passing the church to become an Imperial museum (Müze-i Hümayun) and then, in 1908, in a military museum for a certain time. Since 1973, a careful restoration of the monument has been carried out, which is used as a venue for classical music concertsbecause of its impressive artistic qualities, to the point that since 1980 the main concerts of the Istanbul Music Festival are held in Hagia Irene. The Museum is not autonomous, but depends on the Hagia Sophia Museum.

Church of Saint Sophia
But the crowning work of Byzantine architecture is the church of Hagia Sophia (church of divine wisdom), dedicated to the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, built by the architects Anthem of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus (both from Asia Minor , which he dominated the church built in domed basilica floor), between the years 532 and 537, following the direct orders of emperor Justinian . It is considered one of the “most beautiful and grandiose architectural works of universal art”, And Justinian intended to “erect a monument that, from the time of Adam, would not have had the same and could never have it.”

It was built to replace an earlier basilica , destroyed in 532, on the occasion of the Niká rebellion in Constantinople. The church was solemnly consecrated in 537, although its original dome collapsed in 558. The one that replaced it, taller but smaller, suffered partial collapses in the tenth and fourteenth centuries. Nor is its narthex original, since it was restored after a fire in 564, while the vaults were restored in 740, after an earthquake. It still suffered a new alteration after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and its conversion into a mosque, as its decoration was covered by stucco .

Its plant was of a new type, unknown until that moment, the so-called basilica dome , although antecedents of it can be traced in the V century, a new plant that would become the characteristic of the ecclesiastical buildings under Justinian. The invention of the new plant was possible precisely thanks to the use of brick as a constructive element in replacement of the stone, characteristic arrival to Byzantine architecture from Persian architecture and Mesopotamian architecture .

The dome of the building is superimposed on the floor of the church, without interrupting it with its support pillars. With a length of 72 x 71.7 m, it is rectangular , practically square . The rectangle is divided into three naves by rows of columns, with access narthex and galleries in the aisles. 7 the dome occupies the center of the main nave, with 31 m in diameter and 54 m in height, covered by special, lighter white tiles , made in Rhodes .

To give greater amplitude to the dome, it is supported by two half lateral domes, which duplicate the space covered by it, half domes that in turn are supported on spherical niches . In the north and south wings, there are two arches formeros that counteract the pushing force of the dome, rising over the columns of the grandstands and generating a large tympanum with windows . In addition, the four large pillars existing at the base of the dome were reinforced with other pillars that remain hidden in the aisles, while a set of vaults of different shapes and sizes help dissipate the thrust of the great Dome.8 However, the sensation from inside the temple is of a single dome, graceful and majestic, broadly illuminated by the quarantine ofexisting windows at its start.

The Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea affirmed about the dome of Hagia Sophia that “It does not seem to rest on a massive construction, but to be suspended from the sky by a gold chain and to form like a canopy over the church”.

Church of the Holy Apostles
Also important was the missing church of the Holy Apostles of Constantinople, designed as the mausoleum of Constantine . Renovated in the era of Justinian I , was a model of the church of San Juan de Ephesus (completed ca. 565) and San Marcos de Venecia , work of the eleventh century. Like the latter, it offered a model of a Greek cross plan with five domes, widely imitated throughout the Byzantine world.

The church was built on a hill of the city, designed to house the body of Emperor Constantine, 11 being the oldest in Christianity to be consecrated to the Holy Apostles , and dating from the time of the founding of the own city of Constantinople on the old Byzantium.

Justinian and his wife Theodora reconstructed it between 536-550, taking up the well-known Greek cross plan of the Constantinian church, crowned by a large dome, later richly decorated by Justin II .

The church soon became the imperial necropolis , containing the remains of most of the emperors , distributed in two exterior mausoleums, one to the north and the other to the south of the apse , called hero , the one of Constantine and the one of Justiniano. The interior of the church, however, did not house any graves. Each one of the heroons lodged indistinctly modern or ancient tombs, without being grouped by any type of chronological order. Dethier, a scholar who lived in Constantinople and knew perfectly the topography of the medieval city, spoke of sarcophagi in the heroonof Constantine and for Justinian. Byzantios, a modern Greek writer, adds another five for the first and nine for the second.

The sanctuary received numerous relics: those of the holy apostles Andrew , Luke , Timothy , the first bishop of Ephesus , and Matthew , as well as those of Saints Cosmas and Damian .

Around the church were sumptuous porches , the stoai , along which sarcophagi were arranged isolated from some basilei . Apparently, all the sarcophagi were of marble, completely covered with dazzling ornaments in silver and precious stones . The effect was grandiose, especially in sunlight. Most of the roofs of the sarcophagi were roof-shaped, and contained more jewels still inside. Several patriarchs were also buried there, including John Chrysostom among them .

The tombs were stripped by Alejo IV Ángelo to pay the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade , who also looted the church by breaking and destroying the tombs. What remained was destroyed by the dervishes after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, who apparently spent fourteen hours destroying with clubs and iron bars what had been saved from the destruction caused by the Crusaders.

Italy
The Italian peninsula was widely linked to the Byzantine Empire that established the capital of one of its exarches in the city of Ravenna, while controlling large parts of the peninsula, incorporated into his empire at the mercy of war and political events.

On the other hand, the inherent prestige of Byzantine architecture deeply marked the buildings in other parts of the peninsula or of Sicily, radiating from there their influences to the rest of Western Europe.

Ravenna
Constantinople was not the only important focus in this first Golden Age of Byzantium, it is necessary to remember the nucleus of Ravenna (capital of the Byzantine Empire in the West from the sixth century to the eighth century), the western exarchate located in the northeast of the peninsula Italian, on the banks of the Adriatic Sea , next to Venice . In addition, Ravenna was a naval base of the Roman Navy , which allowed it to control the Adriatic.

The Byzantine churches of Ravenna present two models: one of clear Constantinopolitan inspiration related to the church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, the church of San Vital in Ravenna (538-547), in which, as well as its model, It has an octagonal plan with nave surrounding the high pillars and with a semicircular extension at the head, in front of the apse of the presbytery ; in the feet it has a wide atrium with towerslateral In this church of San Vital are already prefigured the most characteristic features of stylistics in the medieval architecture of the West, especially in those that refers to the vertical sense of construction to the detriment of the preceding horizontality.

The other Byzantine churches of Ravenna have early Christian influence because of their basilica structure with flat roof. They are the basilica of San Apolinar in Classe and the church of San Apolinar Nuevo, both from the first half of the 5th century and with outstanding mosaics. Other monuments should be added to the churches, such as the Gala Placidia mausoleum .

Mausoleum of Gala Placidia
The Mausoleum of Gala Placidia (it is well known, although in fact it is the chapel of San Lorenzo) was erected by order of Gala Placidia , the widow of Constantius III and regent of the Roman Empire in the name of his son Valentinian III , at his return to Italy after the death of her husband, so we can deduce that it is very short after 421, date of the death of Constantius. Some claim that it is the mausoleum of Gala Placidia herself, but documentary sources indicate that she died and was buried in Rome, although her remains now rest in Ravenna, in the very nearby church of San Vital.

The chapel (or mausoleum) is built on ground in Greek cross , as regards the first time that this type of plant was used in Western architecture, and is adjacent to a basilica which also has Greek cross.

The exterior aspect of the building, 15 m long and 13 m wide, highlights the use of brick, with which the walls of the building were raised , with blind arcades and small windows . The roof of the building is based on tegula ( flat Roman tile ), pouring into the dome with four waters and two in the rest of the building.

On the interior decoration of the mausoleum, highlights the majestic dome, endowed with a sumptuous decoration, in a sober and severe. The ornamentation of the dome is based on mosaics, showing a starry blue sky dominated by a golden cross, in colors that match those of the stars, so that the dark blue color of the sky obscures the dome, making the otherwise highlight the cross and the stars. 16 Simultaneously, to convert the square space of the dome into the round of the sky, the four evangelists appear in the corners of the dome .

On the other hand, the ships of the mausoleum that intersect in the dome have a barrel vault .

San Vital
As another example of the link between political and religious power and its influence on Byzantine art, the governors representing the Byzantine Empire in Ravenna were the city’s own archbishops. It was Bishops Maximiano and Víctor who, in the middle of the 6th century, consecrated the church of San Vital, built with the financial help of the Greek banker Juliano Argentarios, as other monuments of the city. The church has as its peculiarity that it is the only octagonal church preserved in the West.

The rich exterior decoration of the church, however, contrasts with the decorative sobriety found in its interior, in which circular arches make it possible to go from the octagonal base to a circular dome . The mosaics of the apse and the presbytery have been conserved, being in its moment the rest of the interior decorated with marble , having disappeared the gilding of the capitals , which has diminished the luminosity of the set.

The dominant figure in the apse is Christ, accompanied by Saint Vital , existing in the presbytery images of the Evangelists and episodes of the Old Testament . The presbytery is at the back, with a section covered by an arched vault and an oven vault closure .

The galleries of the presbytery were also decorated, but the work of the capitals , with fine drafts , stands out especially . Also there is a pulpit of ivory , Bishop Maximiano, although it is unknown whether it is a local work or was imported from Constantinople .

San Apolinar in Classe
Basilica of St. Apollinaris in Classe is one of the main monuments of Byzantine architecture in Ravenna, to the extent that when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization declared World Heritage eight churches Ravenna, cited the Basilica of St. Apolinar in Classe as “an exceptional example of the most ancient Christian basilicas with the purity and simplicity of its design and use of space, as well as the sumptuous nature of its decoration.”

The imposing brick structure was erected by order of Bishop Ursicino, using the economic resources of a Greek banker, Juliano Argentarius (the same who financed the church of San Vital), and is located next to a Christian cemetery, and quite possibly on top of a pre-existing pagan temple , as attested by some gravestones reused in its construction. It is located next to the old port of Ravenna.

St. Apollinaris in Classe was consecrated on May 8, 549 by Bishop Maximiano, being dedicated to the consecration of the first bishop of Ravenna , St. Apollinaris . The Basilica is thus contemporary of the church of San Vital in Ravenna . In 856, the relics of San Apolinar were transferred from the Basilica of San Apolinar in Classe to the basilica of San Apolinar Nuovo , in the same Ravenna.

The exterior has a large facade , with a triforium window . The narthex to the right of the entrance is a later addition, as is the 9th century bell tower .

The interior contains 24 columns of Greek marble, but the exceptional importance lies in the apse, which culminates in a green mosaic with meadows and sheep, allegory these last of the faithful to which a St. Apollinarian welcomes with open arms, under the supervision of the twelve apostles, also presented as lambs leaving Jerusalem and Bethlehem . A large cross presides over the whole, cross that is surrounded by Moses and Elijah . The side walls are currently bare, but surely one day they were also covered with mosaics, which were probably destroyed by the Venetiansin 1449, although they still left the decoration of mosaics in the apse and on the triumphal arch . The latter represents the Savior , among lambs (the faithful, in this case), together with the Apostles.

Both the columns and the bricks used for the construction are apparently imported from Byzantium.

San Apolinar New
The Basilica of San Apolinar Nuevo (or basilica of San Apolinar Nuovo) was built on the same type of floor as that of San Apolinar in Classe, bearing this name due to the transfer of the relics of Saint Apollinaris , who was the first bishop of the diocese, from the Basilica of San Apolinar in Classe.

It was built in the time of Theodoric the Great , being ornamented with mosaics, which were later suppressed, as well as any reference to Arianism or to Theodoric himself. The suppression of the mosaics was the work of Bishop Agnello, and of these mosaics only the highest parts of the decoration were saved; In addition, for a time the church was consecrated to St. Martin of Tours , due to its bitter struggle against heresy .

The basilica was built with three naves, one main and two lateral, not possessing quadruportic but only the narthex . It has an external appearance based on brick, with a roof with sloping gable. At the top of the cover there is, right in the center, a marble bimora , on which there are two other small openings. The central nave ends in a semicircular apse.

There is still an important set of mosaics, which are located in the main nave, consisting of two processions that go, from the entrance of the building, to representations of Christ, in the north wall, or of the Virgin Mary sitting in her room. throne, in the south wall, existing representations of the prophets and patriarchs in the upper level, occupying the gaps between the windows. The mosaics began in 504, although they were modified later.

Venice
Basilica of San Marcos
In Italy highlights the aforementioned Basilica of San Marco in Venice , the year 1063, with a Greek cross inscribed in a rectangle and covered with five major domes on drum , one on the cruise and four in the arms of the cross, resembling in its structure the missing church of the Holy Apostles of Constantinople.

The works for its construction began in 1063, on a previous church, from the ninth century, which housed the body of San Marcos , patron saint of Venice, a temple destroyed in a revolt in 916. The works were completed in 1093, beginning the decoration works of its interior, for which it was despojó to diverse ancient temples of the neighborhoods. In the works, not only Byzantine artists intervened, but also Byzantium materials, especially capitals, were imported.

The basilica, considered “one of the most beautiful architectural examples of Byzantine art”, is endowed with three apses at the head, the central one larger than the lateral ones. The dome is the dominant architectural element of the roof , actually consisting of a set of fourteen differentiated domes, with varying size between them depending on their location, contributing the smaller size to the diffusion of the main loads.

The cupola cover is supported with a set of solid pillars , to which is attached a dense network of columns that support the upper gallery of the basilica. On the main facade there are five doors , with decorations similar to those of Romanesque architecture , with columns on which arches are supported or, in the case of the side doors, a pointed arch . The eardrums existing on the doors present decorations of varied eras and styles, betraying some of their Byzantine origin by the gold leaf with which they are covered.

This first body or floor supports a balustrade , behind which there is a second body, with five blind arches with the same decorative scheme as the lower floor, with a central arc greater than the sides in which there is a glass for interior lighting of the basilica, as in the Romanesque and Gothic architecture .

The first interior decoration of the basilica of San Marcos was the work of specialists in Byzantine mosaics, but these mosaics were lost during the fire that the monument suffered on 1106. Except for some fragments that were recovered after the fire, the current mosaics are therefore from the 12th century.

Russia
In this Second Golden Age the Byzantine art was extended to the Russian area of Armenia , in Kiev the church of St. Sophia was built in 1017, faithfully following the influence of the architecture of Constantinople was structured in a basilical form of five finished naves in apses, in Novgorod the churches of St. George and St. Sophia rise , both of the central plan. Keep in mind that the current Ukraine and Russia had been converted to Christianity by the action of missionaries of Bulgarian origin belonging to the Orthodox Church . To this must be added the marriage that occurred in 989 between the princeVladimir I of Kiev and the princess Ana, sister of the emperor Basil II .

During the Third Golden Age, between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries Byzantine art continues to spread through Europe and Russia, predominantly churches plants covered by domes abulbadas on drums circular or polygonal. At this stage correspond in Greece the Church of the Holy Apostles of Salonica , the fourteenth century, the church of Mistra , in the Peloponnese , and some monasteries of Mount Athos .

Also the Byzantine temples are multiplied by the valleys of the Danube , by Rumania and Bulgaria, arriving until the Russian lands of Moscow where it emphasizes the Cathedral of San Basilio, in the Red place of Moscow, realized in the days of Ivan the Terrible (1555-1561 ), whose five domes, the tallest and slender in the transept and four others located in the angles that form the arms of the cross, stand out for their coloration, for the high drums and for their characteristic artistic profiles.

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