Churches and the Society in Byzantine-period Hippos, in: Proceedings of the conference Decapolis, ARAM Society, Oxford, 7-10 July 2008, pp. 253-284 (original) (raw)

The Basilica of Hippos of the Decapolis and a Corpus of the Regional Basilicae

The Basilica in Roman Palestine, Adoption and Adaptation Processes, in Light of Comparanda in Italy and North Africa, A. Dell’acqua and O. Peleg-Barkat (eds), 2021

Hippos was a small Graeco-Roman city in Roman Syria-Palaestina; yet, it holds a prominent place in the modern research of Roman provinces thanks to years of orderly exploration, and the state of preservation of its remains. In no other field does it feature more prominently than in the research of basilicae – the basilica of Hippos is one of the only basilicae in the region that has been fully excavated and preserved with high degree of detail. The excavated material and the architectural characteristics reveal that it was erected at the end of the 1st century CE and destroyed in the 363 CE earthquake. High quality stucco and vivid wall paintings of the inner décor, which covered the walls and the basalt colonnades, attest to the elegant look of the basilica’s interior. Some marble architectural fragments point to limited renovations, typical for provincial in-land cities in the 2nd–3rd century CE. The basilica at Hippos almost fully visualizes how this type of building was reproduced outside of the core of the Roman Empire. The short comparative study included in the article not only contextualizes the findings from Hippos, but also reveals a narrative of the regional basilicae – they belonged to the ‘Vitruvian’ and ‘Pompeian’ types, were constructed between the 1st century BCE and the 3rd century CE, and went out of use no later than the 363 CE earthquake.

THE CIVIC BASILICA IN THE DECAPOLIS AND JUDAEA-PALAESTINA 2019

Questions of the History of World Architecture 13(2), 2019

In the current paper, an attempt is made to gather the data on the limited corpus of Roman (second half of the 1st century BC-4th century AD) basilicas, known in the cities of Decapolis and Judaea-Palaestina. The comparative description is given; wherever available-together with information on relationship with the urban context. The basilicas of Kanata, Hippos-Susita, Nysa-Scythopolis (2 structures), Beth She'arim, Sebaste and Ascalon are described in detail; the preference of the "ambulatory" type is apparent. The 2nd-3rd centuries reconstructions with monumentalization of features, conventionally called "tribunals", were likely related to the imperial visits to the region and to the growing importance of the imperial cult. The basilica of the Jewish town of Beth She'arim differs from the rest with its nave and double-aisled plan and was possibly influenced by the Royal portico of the Jerusalem temple. The tendency not to reconstruct basilicas damaged by the 363 earthquake and the general tendency of obsolescence of this architectural form towards the Byzantine period is noted.

DRAFT: The Civic Basilica in the Decapolis and Judaea-Palaestina

Questions of the History of World Architecture, 2019

In the current paper, an attempt is made to gather the data on the limited corpus of Roman (second half of the 1st century BC – 4th century AD) basilicas, known in the cities of Decapolis and Judaea-Palaestina. The comparative description is given; wherever available – together with information on relationship with the urban context. The basilicas of Kanata, Hippos-Susita, Nysa-Scythopolis (2 structures), Beth She'arim, Sebaste and Ascalon are described in detail; the preference of the "ambulatory" type is apparent. The 2nd-3rd centuries reconstructions with monumentalization of features, conventionally called "tribunals", were likely related to the imperial visits to the region and to the growing importance of the imperial cult. The basilica of the Jewish town of Beth She'arim differs from the rest with its nave and double-aisled plan and was possibly influenced by the Royal portico of the Jerusalem temple. The tendency not to reconstruct basilicas damaged by the 363 earthquake and the general tendency of obsolescence of this architectural form towards the Byzantine period is noted.

Three little known churches of Constantinople

Annual of Assen Zlatarov Uniersity, Burgas, Bulgaria, 2021

The presentation of the latest archeological evidence, new information, and the collecting of existing material related to Byzantine architecture monuments in Istanbul is an important step towards the better understanding of their nature and facilitating their analysis that is directly related to Byzantine culture as a model and archetype with its central place in the cultural environment of the whole Middle Ages. Such architectural monuments are the temples of Constantinople „St. Acacius“, „Sts. Carpus and Papylus“ and „St. Mocius“. Their individual examinination and analysis support their further presentation to the scientific community as a single image which would assist the future additional analysis and filling in of missing information concerning their architecture, structure and location.

Internal Arrangements in some Early Christian Basilicas of the Eastern Mediterranean

Hortus Artium Medievalium, 2018

This paper would suggest how -despite the apparent resemblance— the perception of the interior of three aisled basilicas were very different to each other; this is because there were different categories of clerics and faithfuls and who were asked to follow certain paths or/and to hold a certain position before or during the celebrations. These positions or common movements were driven by the presence of fixed or mobile separations and certain liturgical furnishings such as ambos and secondary tables. Consequently the various positions, together with the disparate revetments used into the spaces derived from these divisions and their degree of brightness, could completely change the perception of the inner space of the different categories of the faithful who moved in these spaces.

architecture and mosaics in recently discovered palaeochristian basilicas

The excavations of the Dericik Early Christian Basilicas revealed the importance of the surrounding area of Bursa for understanding Early Christianity between the Late Roman and Early Byzantine periods. In the salvage excavations of 2001, the basic plan of the basilica (nave, narthex, presbyterium and apse) was revealed. The most important artefacts uncovered in that year were the mosaic pavements with geometric and plant ornaments and a grave located in the North Eastern corner of the church. The mosaic of the basilica was laid with the opus tessellatum technique on a thick mortar foundation with white, red, yellow, olive green and dark blue tesserae. A refrigerium scene is represented in the middle of the narthex mosaic. The mosaic in the centre of the nave is divided into parts, one of which with figures of birds inside octagons. In the transitional area between the nave and apse, three heavily damaged inscriptions have been conserved each of three or four lines, one of them indicating the wish of Epituchanos, diakôn, a church member.

The Athens Cathedral

Translation from the paper: Ο Ιερός Καθεδρικός Ναός των Αθηνών, Β' Επιστημονικό Συμπόσιο Νεοελληνικής Εκκλησιαστικής Τέχνης, Αθήνα 2012, 39-64.

= S. Maltseva - D. Nikolovski, Architectural Features of the Church of St. Demetrius in Veles An Analysis of Recent Discoveries

Actual Problems of Theory and History , 2024, 2024

Abstract. The article is devoted to an in-depth study of the architectural features of the Church of St. Demetrius the Great Martyr in Veles. For an extended period, there was a lack of available information regarding the date of construction of the church and its history during the Middle Ages. The first to undertake a study of the church was the Yugoslav historian of architecture J. Bošković. In the absence of any information regarding the history of the church, he attributed its architectural solution to the second half of the 14th century. As a result, the Church of St. Demetrius in Veles was included in the primary reviews on the Balkan architecture, and was considered to be in a similar style to the churches of Serbia. An alternative viewpoint, which posits the possibility of categorizing the church in Veles within the context of early Paleologian architecture of the 13th century, was initially presented in the thesis of the Macedonian historian of architecture Sasho Korunovski. During the restoration work conducted between 2018 and 2022 by a team of specialists from the NI National Conservation Center in Skopje, the original murals were discovered and cleared of lime plaster in the interior of the narthex, on its eastern and northern walls. The newly discovered fragments of murals on the eastern wall of the northeastern corner of the narthex have revealed a ktitor’s composition depicting a large figure holding a model of the church in his hand. A lengthy dedicatory inscription accompanies the ktitorial portrait. Despite the considerable damage, the majority of the text could be deciphered. The date of construction and the name of the ktitor have been identified. Once the dating was clarified, it became possible to undertake a more detailed analysis of the architectural features of the church in the context of the artistic traditions of the era in which it was constructed.

A Short Report on Three Newly Accessible Churches in the Syrian Quarter of Famagusta

Journal of Cyprus Studies, 2007

The northwest corner of the walled city of Famagusta was known in the middle ages as the Syrian Quarter as many refugee communities from Syria, such as the Maronites, Jacobites, and Nestorians lived and founded their churches in that sector of the town (Fig. ). The presence of these groups was precipitated by an exodus of Levantine, non-Latin Christians which began, more or less, in 1291 after the fall of the crusader city of Acre to the advancing armies of Saladin. 1 The Syrian Quarter is also the location of the small Armenian church, the Latin Carmelite church, an underground church called St. Mary of Bethlehem, and the scant remains of a small medieval Orthodox church excavated by the Department of Antiquities in the 1930s. Until November of 2007 three of these-the Maronite church of St. Anne, the small Orthodox church, and the Jacobite church (also known as the "Tanner's Mosque" or "Tabakhane")-were inaccessible owing to their integration into a military base in 1974. However, this area has now been opened to the public after thirty-three years and the attendant opportunity to visit justifies an assessment of the historical architecture of these previously restricted buildings. This report gives a brief account of the three churches now accessible to the public but also includes a brief description of the nearby church of St. Mary of Bethlehem which is one of Famagusta's most interesting yet least known ecclesiastical edifices. The church of St. Anne (Figs. ) is well preserved with its vaulting intact. 2 Although originally a Latin, Catholic church (probably Benedictine) it was given over to the Maronites at some point in the 14 th century. The interior consists of a single hall with two groin vaulted bays and a polygonal apse with a ribbed vault over it (Fig. ). Two transverse arches springing from corbels at the clerestory level demarcate the bays of the vaulting. In its general plan it has similarities to the now ruined St. George of the Latins in Famagusta. The façade has a simple doorway which has been augmented with additional masonry. Perhaps there were structural concerns about the integrity of the very large lintel which may have threatened to fail under

Basilica # 1 with a Newly Discovered Crypt from the Roman / Early Byzantine City of Zaldapa. Аddenda еt corrigenda

Basilica # 1, in Zaldapa (NE Bulgaria), was excavated and documented by K. Škorpil in 1906 and the results are stored in the archives of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia. In 2014-2018, we conducted systematic archaeological studies in Zaldapa, including Basilica # 1, which are presented in this publication. Besides, additional plans, photographs and drawings from the excavations of 1906 were recently discovered in the archive of K. Škorpil, which helped us to refine the plan of Basilica # 1 and the mosaic panel in the preapsid space. Several adjustments and additions can be made based on these new archaeological and pictorial data. This is undoubtedly a three-aisled single-apse basilica with a tripartite narthex and exterior dimensions of 27.75 x 16.5 m. According to K. Škorpil's plans, the exterior of the apse is five-walled, but during the 2018 excavations it was discovered that the substructure was semicircular in interior and exterior. K. Škorpil's documentation lacked information on the foundations of the basilica, so in 2016 drill-holes were made in the outer south wall and in the stylobate of the southern colonnade. We found that the foundation beneath the outer walls was approximately 1.90 m deep, 0.98-1.00 m wide, and made of rubble and roughly hewn stones concreted with red mortar. After correlating the documentation and the plans of K. Škorpil with the plans of modern researchers, we conclude that the entrance from the west (which means from the street to the southwest gate located nearby) towards the narthex is the only one with a width of about 2.20 m. The narthex is tripartite, with the naos connected through three entrances-the lateral about 1.60 m wide and the central one again 2.20 m. There are two entrances in the eastern half of the north and south outer walls, 1.20 m wide, approaching the temple bema where the liturgical theater is concentrated. There were also two narrow entrances about 0.80 m wide on the eastern walls of the temple on both sides of the apse, but at a later stage they were walled up. There is certainly a documented ambo of Constantinopolitan type, but there is no synthronon registered. The altar partition was an openwork of Prokonnesian marble, similar to that of the Bishop's Basilica in Istria and the Cathedral of Zaldapa (Basilica # 3), located about 350 m in a northwestern direction. Particularly noteworthy is the mosaic panel, 4.80 x 3.90 m, which covers the whole bema of Basilica # 1. The new addition is the previously unknown plan of Škorpil with a more detailed drawing of the mosaic and the newly discovered color panel, which provides additional information for the mosaic colors. The total number of quadrates, according to the black and white drawing in the archive of Škorpil in Varna, is 30-6 in the north-south direction and 5 in the west-east direction. The filling of the first central pair is a complex X-shape, reminiscent of the St. Andrew's Cross. Solomon knots are placed in the next, equally filled pair of quadrates flanking the central one. The outermost two quadrates (north and south) have a fish flake motif. During the excavations in 2016, in the center of the bema, just where the mosaic was, we registered a 1.95 m long pit dug into the solid loess. It was carefully carved into the solid loess with vertical walls, and the floor was covered with red mortar, on which there are documented 2 bricks stuck in situ. It is located in the center of the pre-altar space respectively, exactly where, according to the canon, the altar table was located, and was completely covered by the mosaic panel. These undoubtedly are arguments which suggest that the crypt was used for the preservation of holy relics. The arrangement and dimensions are large enough to the lay out a complete skeleton of a martyr, similar to those of the crypt under the altar table of Basilica # 3 (Cathedral) in the center of Zaldapa.