FREE ESSAY ON BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE

BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE

Byzantine Architecture
The architecture of the Byzantine Empire was based on the great legacy of Roman formal
and technical achievements. Constantinople had been purposely founded as the Christian
counterpart and successor to the leadership of the old pagan city of Rome. The new
capital was in close contact with the Hellenized East, and the contribution of Eastern
culture, though sometimes overstressed, was an important element in the development of
its architectural style. The 5th-century basilica of St. John of the Studion, the oldest
surviving church in Constantinople, is an early example of Byzantine reliance upon
traditional Roman models.
The most imposing achievement of Byzantine architecture is the Church of Holy Wisdom or
Hagia Sophia. It was constructed in a short span of five years (532-37) during the reign
of Justinian. Hagia Sophia is without a clear antecedent in the architecture of late
antiquity, yet it must be accounted as culminating several centuries of experimentation
toward the realization of a unified space of monumental dimensions. Throughout the
history of Byzantine religious architecture, the centrally planned structure continued in
favor. Such structures, which may show considerable variation in plan, have in common the
predominance of a central domed space, flanked and partly sustained by smaller domes and
half-domes spanning peripheral spaces.
Although many of the important buildings of Constantinople have been destroyed,
impressive examples are still extant throughout the provinces and on the outer fringes of
the empire, notably in Bulgaria, Russia, Armenia, and Sicily. A great Byzantine
architectural achievement is the octagonal church of San Vitale (consecrated 547) in
Ravenna. The church of St. Mark's in Venice was based on a Byzantine prototype, and
Byzantine workmen were employed by Arab rulers in the Holy Land and in Ottonian Germany
during the 11th cent.
Secular architecture in the Byzantine Empire has left fewer traces. Foremost among these
are the ruins of the 5th-century walls of the city of Constantinople, consisting of an
outer and an inner wall, each originally studded with 96 towers. Some of these can still
be seen.
Bibliography
the short history of the byzantium empire 1985 George fergson.