This design was employed in the construction of the 4th century Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which was originally composed of five basic elements: a Rotunda over the place of the Tomb a chapel built on Golgotha, the place of the Cross a Courtyard a great, five-aisled Basilica, with apse and altar at the western end, toward the Tomb and an Atrium at the eastern entrance to the Basilica from the Cardo Maximus, the colonaded main street that ran south from the present Damascus Gate. Such churches sometimes had the addition of two transepts, forming the arms of the "T". A recessed, semi-circular, half-domed apse (usually at the eastern end of the church) contained the main altar. The vertical consisting of a nave, usually flanked by two or more side-aisles. The church itself was built in the shape of a "T". Entrance to such churches was often through a large, colonaded courtyard, called atrium, and a vestibule, called narthex. The basic design in early church construction was the basilica, the large, usually rectangular public halls used by the Romans for public meetings. The Byzantines further developed this in the construction of great domed buildings, such as Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The principal feature of Roman architecture was the arch and the vault in domed roof construction. Roman - Byzantine Period (70 - 638)Īlmost all early Christian architects borrowed heavily from the Romans, whatever the regional culture of the individual community. While no identifiable Christian structure survives from either of these periods, a sense of the architectural character of the surroundings in which Jesus and his disciples lived can be seen in the ruins of two buildings in Jerusalem destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE: the Burnt House in the Jewish Quarter, and the barrel-vaulted rooms found during archeological excavations at the Armenian Orthodox Church of the Holy Saviour on Mount Zion. The earliest buildings used by Christians as places of residence and worship in Jerusalem were probably constructed in the contemporary Herodian and Roman styles. Herodian- and even Hasmonean-cut stones can be found in buildings of the Byzantine, early- Islamic and Crusader periods and a stone-carved rosette window from a Crusader church is incorporated in the 16th century Ottoman fountain opposite the Bab al-Silsila (Gate of the Chain) entrance to the Haram esh-Sharif (the temple Mount). Simply stated, the Western churches tended to have an open, high altar whereas the Eastern churches placed the altar behind an iconostasis, a wall separating the sanctuary from the main body of the church.īuilding in Jerusalem also made repeated re-use of older stone work and architectural elements. Differences in tradition also affected the design of the sanctuaries. ![]() ![]() Even in later centuries, the design of these buildings was influenced as much by the religious traditions of the individual Christian community as by the building methods and styles current at the time of construction. Many of the churches, monasteries, convents and shrines mark sites associated with the earliest years of Christianity and the life and ministry of Jesus and his disciples. ![]() ![]() It is also a study of the continuing influence of custom and established tradition on style, design and ornamentation. Jerusalem Architectural History: Table of Contents| Umayyad Period| Modern IsraelĪ survey of historic Christian architecture in Jerusalem is a study of continuity and survival despite the ravages of time, war, schism, earthquake and fire.
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