The architecture of the church refers to the architecture of the buildings of Christian churches. It has evolved over two thousand years of Christianity, partly by innovation and partly by imitating other architectural styles and responding to changes in local beliefs, practices and traditions. Since the birth of Christianity until now, the most significant transformational objects for Christian architecture and design are the large churches in Byzantium, the Roman monastery churches, Gothic cathedrals, and the Renaissance basilica with their emphasis on harmony. Large, often ornate and high-rise buildings are the dominant features of the towns and villages where they stand. However, there are far more parish churches in the Christian world, the focus of Christian devotion in every town and village. While some are counted as masterpieces of great architecture to match cathedrals and large churches, the majority are built on simpler paths, pointing out the large regional diversity and often exhibiting local vernacular technology and decoration.
Buildings were originally adapted from those originally intended for other purposes but, with the emergence of distinct ecclesiastical architecture, church buildings came to influence the secular who often imitate the religious architecture. In the 20th century, the use of new materials, such as steel and concrete, has influenced the design of the church. The history of church architecture divided itself into periods, and into countries or territories and by religious affiliations. The problem is complicated by the fact that buildings prepared for one purpose may have been reused for other buildings, that new building techniques can allow changes in style and size, that changes in liturgical practice can lead to changes to existing buildings and a building built by one group religion can be used by successor groups for different purposes.
Video Church architecture
Origins and church building development
The simplest church building consists of a meeting room, built from locally available materials and using the same construction skills as local domestic buildings. Such churches are generally rectangular, but in African countries where circular dwellings are the norm, vernacular churches may also be circular. A simple church can be constructed of mud brick, hammer and pinch, log split or debris. It may be roofed with hay, shingles, iron leaf or banana leaf. However, the church congregation, from the 4th century onwards, has sought to build permanent and aesthetic church buildings. This has led to a tradition in which local congregations and leaders have invested time, money, and personal prestige into church buildings and decorations.
In every parish, the local church is often the oldest building, and larger than the structure before the 19th century except perhaps a barn. The church is often built of the most durable material available, often decorated with stone or brick. The liturgical requirement generally requires that the church should go beyond a meeting room into two main rooms, one for the congregation and one where the priest performs the Mass ritual. To the structure of two rooms are often added alleys, towers, chapels, and vests and sometimes transepts and chapel morgue. The additional space may have been part of the original plan, but in the case of many old churches, the building has been gradually extended, its various sections giving testimony to its long architectural history.
Beginning
In the first three centuries of the Early Christian Church of Livia, the practice of Christianity was illegal and some churches were built. At first Christians worshiped together with Jews in synagogues and in private homes. After the separation of Jews and Christians, the latter continued to worship in the homes of the inhabitants, known as the house church. This is often the home of the richer members of the faith. Saint Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, writes, "The churches of Asia send greetings, and Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their home, greet you warmly in the Lord."
Some domestic buildings are adapted to function as churches. One of the earliest adaptable settlements was at the Europos Dura church, built shortly after 200 AD, in which two rooms were made into one, removing walls, and a podium was erected. To the right of the entrance to a small room was made a place of baptism.
Some church buildings were specially constructed as church assemblies, such as those overlooking the palace of the emperor Diocletian in Nicomedia. Its destruction is recorded as follows:
When that day comes, at the eighth consul of Diocletian and the seventh Maximian, suddenly, when it's still not bright, the prefect, along with the chief commander, the stands, and the treasurer, comes to the church in Nicomedia, and the gates are forced open, they search in everywhere for god idols. The books of Scripture are found, and they are committed to light the fire; equipment and church furniture left behind to be looted: everything is fragile, confusion, commotion. The church, which is located on the rising ground, is in the view of the palace; and Diocletian and Galerius stood, as if in a watchtower, a long dispute whether it should be burned. Diocletian's sentiments prevailed, which afraid lest, so great as the fire that had been kindled, some parts of the city might have been burned; because there are many large buildings that surround the church. Then the Pretorian Guards came in battles, with axes and other tools of iron, and loosened everywhere, within hours of treading them with soil.
From house church to church
From the beginning to the beginning of the fourth century, most Christian communities are revered in private homes, often in secret. Some Roman churches, such as the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome, were built directly over the houses where early Christians were worshiped. Other ancient Roman churches were built on Christian martyrdom sites or at the entrance to the catacombs where Christians are buried.
With the victory of Roman Emperor Constantine at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 AD, Christianity became a legitimate religion and later became the privilege of the Roman Empire. Faith, already spread around the Mediterranean, is now expressed in the building. Christian architecture was made to conform to civil and imperial forms, and as soon as the Basilica, the rectangular assembly hall became common in the east and west, as a model for churches, with nave and gang and sometimes galleries and priests. While the civil basilica has apses at both ends, the Christian basilica usually has one apse in which the bishop and presbyter sit in a pulpit behind the altar. While the pagan basilica has its focus as a statue of the emperor, the Christian basilica focuses on the Eucharist as a symbol of an eternal, loving and forgiving God.
The first great Christian churches, notably Santa Maria Maggiore, San Giovanni di Laterano, and Santa Costanza, were built in Rome at the beginning of the 4th century.
Characteristics of early Christian church buildings
The church buildings as we know grow from a number of features from the Ancient Roman period:
- House church
- Atrium
- Basilica
- Bema
- Tomb: centrally planned building
- Plot of the cross: Latin or Greek cross
Atrium
When the Early Christian community began to build the church, they drew a special feature of the houses that preceded them, the atrium , or the pages with the surrounding pillars. Most of these atriums have disappeared. A great example remains at the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome and the other built in the Roman period at Sant'Ambrogio, Milan. The offspring of this atria can be seen in the large square cloisters that can be found beside many cathedrals, and in large boxes or piazze at the Basilicas of St. Peter in Rome and St. Mark in Venice and Camposanto (Holy Field ) at Pisa Cathedral.
Basilica
The architecture of the early church did not withdraw its form from Roman temples, because the latter had no great internal space in which the worshiping congregation could meet. It is a Roman basilica, used for meetings, markets and courts of law that provide a model for the great Christian church and who gives its name to the Christian basilica.
Both the Roman basilica and the Roman bath house have essentially a large domed building with a high roof, supported on either side by a series of lower chambers or wide sections. One important feature of the Roman basilica is that at both ends there is a projected eksedra, or apse, a semi-circular half-roofed space. This is where the judges sit for a trial. This went into the architecture of the Roman world church and was adapted in different ways as a cathedral architectural feature.
The earliest major churches, such as the Cathedral of San Giovanni di Laterano in Rome, consist of a basilica that ends with one apsidal end and a yard, or atrium, at the other end. As Christian liturgy develops, the procession becomes part of the process. The process door is the one leading from the far end of the building, while the most widely used door by the public may be located at the center of one side of the building, as in the legal basilica. This is the case in many cathedrals and churches.
Bema
As the number of pastors increases, a small apse containing an altar, or a table where the sacrament and wine buns are offered in Holy Communion ceremonies, is not enough to accommodate them. A raised podium called bema is part of many large basilican churches. In the case of St. Peter's Basilica and San Paolo fuori le Mura (St. Paul outside the Wall) in Rome, the bema is extended laterally outside the main assembly hall, forming two arms so that the building takes the form of T by projecting apse. From this beginning, the church plan evolved into what is called the Latin Cross which is the form of most Western cathedrals and the great churches. The cross arm is called a transept.
Mausoleum
One influence on church architecture is the mausoleum. The tomb of the Roman nobility is a square or round structure that holds a sarcophagus. Emperor Constantine built for his daughter, Costanza, a tomb that had a circular center surrounded by a lower ambulatory or a hallway separated by columns. Santa Costanza cemetery became a place of worship as well as a grave. This is one of the earliest more centrally located church buildings, rather than longitudinally planned. Constantine was also responsible for the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem resembling a tomb, which in turn affected the plans of several buildings, including those built in Rome to accommodate the remnants of Stephen's proto-martyrs, San Stefano Rotondo and the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna.
Ancient round or polygonal churches are relatively rare. A small number, like the Temple Church, London was built during the Crusade as a replica of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as separate examples in England, France and Spain. In Denmark, such churches in Romanesque style are much more numerous. In some parts of Eastern Europe there are also churches like minarets in the Romanesque period but generally they are vernacular and small-scale architecture. Others, such as St Martin's Rotunda in Vishegrad, in the Czech Republic, are very detailed.
A circular or polygonal shape lends itself to buildings in a church complex that perform functions where it is desirable for people to stand, or to sit around, with focused focus, rather than axial ones. In Italy a round or polygonal form was used during the medieval period for baptism, while in England it was adapted for chapel houses. In France, a patterned polygonal plan is adapted as an eastern terminal and in Spain the same form is often used as a chapel.
In addition to Santa Costanza and San Stefano, there is an important Roman shrine in Roman circle, the vast Ancient Pantheon of Rome, with its niches filled with sculptures. It also is to become a Christian church and lend a style for the development of Cathedral architecture.
The Latin Cross and the Greek cross
Most of the cathedrals and the big churches have a cross ground plan. In Western European tradition churches, the plan is usually elongated, in a form called Latin Cross with the length of the nave crossed by a transept. Transept may be as powerful as the project at York Minster or not outside the alley like in Amiens Cathedral.
Many of the earliest Byzantine churches have elongated plans. In Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, there is a central dome, framed on one axis by two semi-high domes and on the other by a rectangular transeptive arm, the whole plan becomes square. This great church will affect the building of many later churches, even into the 21st century. A square plan in which the nave, chancel and transept sleeves have the same length as the Greek cross, the intersection commonly passed by the dome became a common form in the Eastern Orthodox Church, with many churches throughout Eastern Europe and Russia built here. way. Churches of the Greek Cross form often have a narthex or a front room that stretches across the front of the church. This type of plan is also to then play a role in the development of church architecture in Western Europe, especially in the Bramante plan for St. Peter's Basilica.
Maps Church architecture
Divergences of Eastern and Western church architecture
The division of the Roman Empire in the fourth century AD, produced a Christian ritual that developed in different ways in the east and west of the empire. The final break was the Great Schism 1054.
Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Architectures
Eastern Christianity and Western Christianity have begun to deviate from each other from the earliest. While the basilica is the most common form in the west, a more compact centralized style becomes dominant in the east. These churches were originally from martyria, built as tombs that housed the graves of saints who had died during the persecution which only ended with the conversion of Emperor Constantine. An important living example is the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna, which maintains its mosaic decoration. Coming from the fifth century, it may have been used briefly as a speech before it became a tomb.
These buildings copied the pagan and square-shaped tombs, crosses with shallow or polygonal projection arms. They are overlaid by domes that come to symbolize heaven. The projected arm sometimes roofed with a lower dome or semi-dome and borders the central block of the building. Byzantine churches, though centrally planned around domed spaces, generally retain a definite axis of the apsidal scriptures that are generally extended further than other apses. This projection allows for the installation of iconostasis, the screen on which icons are hung and which hides the altar from the worshipers except at the points in the liturgy when the door is opened.
The architecture of Constantinople (Istanbul) in the 6th century resulted in churches effectively combining centralized plans and basilicas, possessing a semi-domed shape of axis, and galleries lined up on either side. The Church of Hagia Sophia (now a museum) is the most significant and influential example of both Christian and Islamic architecture, such as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Many later Eastern Orthodox churches, especially large churches, incorporate a centrally planned centralized east with the west-facing east.
The variant form of a centralized church was developed in Russia and became famous in the sixteenth century. Here the dome is replaced with a thinner and taller roof or a conical roof that may come from the need to prevent the snow remaining on the roof. One of the best examples of these tent churches is St. Basil's in Red Square in Moscow.
Western Middle Ages
Participation in worship, which led to the veranda church, began to decline as the church became more educated; with the appearance of the monastery church building changing as well. 'The' church 'two spaces become, in Europe, the norm. The first 'space', the center, is used by the congregation; the second 'space', the sanctuary, is a spiritual conservation and where the Mass is celebrated. This can then be seen only from a distance by the congregation through the arch between the rooms (from the late medieval closed by the wood partition, the Rood screen), and the host elevation, the communion bread, into focus. from the celebration: at that time generally not taken by the congregation. Given that the liturgy is said in Latin, people are content with their personal devotion up to this point. Because of the difficult line of sight, some churches have holes, 'squint', cut strategically on walls and screens, where elevation can be seen from the center. Again, from the twin principles that every priest should say his mass every day and that an altar can be used only once, in religious communities a number of altars are required where space should be found, at least in monastic churches.
In spite of the changes in the liturgy, another major influence on church architecture is the use of new materials and the development of new techniques. In northern Europe, early churches were often built of wood, almost non-existent survivors. With the wider use of stone by Benedictine monks, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, larger structures were erected.
The church of two rooms, especially if it is a monastery or cathedral, may obtain transepts. It is an effective weapon of the cross that now forms the basic building plan. Buildings become more obvious as a symbol of what is meant for them. Sometimes these crossings, which are now the center of church focus, will be overcome by their own towers, next to the western tower, or in their place. (Such a precarious structure is known to collapse - as in Ely - and must be rebuilt). Sanctuaries, now provide to sing from the office by monks or canons, grow longer and become chancels, separated from the nave by screen. Practical functions and symbolism are both working in the development process.
Factors affecting church architecture
Across Europe, the process by which church architecture is developed and each church is designed and built differently in different regions, and sometimes differs from church to church in the same region and within the same historical period.
Among the factors that determine how a church is designed and built is the nature of the local community, the location in the city, town or village, whether the church is a monastic church, whether the church is a college church, does the church have the protection of a bishop, have sustained patronage from rich families and whether the church contains relics of saints or other sacred objects that are likely to perform the pilgrimage.
The churches and monastic churches, even those serving small religious communities, generally show the complexity of larger forms than the parochial churches in the same area and the same date.
The churches that have been built under the protection of a bishop generally employ competent church architects and show in a style refinement design that is unlike a parochial builder.
Many parish churches have the protection of rich local families. The degree of influence on architecture can be quite different. This may require the design and construction of entire buildings that have been funded and influenced by certain protectors. On the other hand, the evidence of patronage may be seen only in the chantry chapel gains, tombs, memorials, fittings, stained glass and other decorations.
Churches containing famous relics or worship objects and thus become pilgrimages churches are often very large and have been elevated to the status of the basilica. However, many other churches perpetuate the corpse or be associated with the life of certain saints without attracting a continuing hajj and the financial benefits it carries.
The popularity of the saints, the worship of their relics, and the size and importance of the church built to honor them without consistency and can depend on completely different factors. The two almost unknown soldiers, San Giovanni and San Paolo, were honored by one of the largest churches in Venice, built by the Dominican Friars in a competition with the Franciscans who built the Frari Church at the same time. The much smaller church containing the body of Saint Lucy, a martyr who is respected by Catholics and Protestants worldwide and titular saints from various locations, was destroyed in the late 19th century to pave the way for the Venezia railway station.
After the second world war, modern materials and techniques such as concrete and metal panels were introduced in the construction of the Norwegian church. Cathedral BodÃÆ'¸ for example built in reinforced concrete allows a wide basilica to be built. During the 1960s there was a more tangible breakthrough from such traditions in the Arctic Cathedral built on lightweight concrete and enclosed in aluminum sidings.
Wooden churches
In Norway, church architecture has been influenced by wood as an ingredient of choice, especially in sparsely populated areas. The churches were built until the second world war about 90% of wood except medieval construction. During the Middle Ages all wooden churches in Norway (about 1000 total) were built in stave church techniques, but only 271 masonry constructions. After Protestant reforms when the construction of new churches (or long replacements) continued, timber remains the dominant material but logging techniques become dominant. Log construction gives a sturdier building style than a lightweight and often high church. Wood construction becomes structurally unstable for long and high walls, especially when cut by high windows. Adding transepts improves log engineering stability and is one of the reasons why cross floor plans were widely used during the 1600s and 1700s. For example, the Old Olden Church (1759) replaced the damaged buildings due to hurricanes, the 1759 church then built in the form of a cross to make it the strongest wind resistant. The length of the tree (beam) also determines the length of the wall according to SÃÆ'Â|ther. In Samnanger's church for example, the outer corners have been cut to avoid splicing logs, the result is a rectangular plan rather than a rectangle. The construction of the cross provides a more rigid structure and larger churches, but the view to the pulpit and the altar is obstructed by the interior corners for the seats in the transept. The octagonal floor plan offers good visibility as well as a rigid structure that allows a relatively wide section to be built - HÃÆ'  ¥ kon Christie believes that this is the reason why the octagonal church design became popular during the 1700s. Vreim believes that the introduction of logging techniques after the reforms resulted in many church designs in Norway.
In Ukraine, wooden church construction comes from the introduction of Christianity and continues to expand, especially in rural areas, when stone churches dominate in cities and in Western Europe.
Ethiopian church architecture
Although rooted in the Eastern Christian tradition - especially the Syrian church - and also after exposure to European influence - the traditional architectural style of Ethiopian Orthodox churches has followed its own path. The earliest known churches show a familiar basilican layout. For example, the church of Debre Damo is organized around a nave of four bays separated by reused monolithic columns; at the western end is a low-roofed narthex, while to the east is maqdas , or Holy of Holies, separated by the only arch in the building.
The next period, beginning in the second half of the first millennium of AD and lasting until the 16th century, includes structures built from conventional materials, and those carved from stone. Although the most surviving example of the first one is now found in the cave, Thomas Pakenham finds an example in Wollo, protected within a circular wall of construction later. An example of these churches being built is the Yemrehana Krestos church, which has much in common with the Debre Damo church in both plan and construction.
Another style of this period, perhaps the most famous architectural tradition in Ethiopia, is the many monolithic churches. These include worship houses carved out from the side of the mountains, such as Abreha we Atsbeha, which, although roughly the middle square and transects are combined to form a cruciform outline - eminent scholars to categorize Abreha we Atsbeha as examples of cross-in-square churches- church. Then there are the Lalibela churches, created by digging into the "hills of soft tuff, redness, variables in violence and composition". Some churches, such as Bete Ammanuel and Bete Giyorgis in the shape of a cross, are completely free-standing with volcanic tuffs removed from all sides, while other churches, such as Bete Gabriel-Rufael and Bete Abba Libanos, are only separated from living stones in one or two side. All churches are accessed through the labyrinth of tunnels.
The last period of the architecture of the Ethiopian church, which extends to this day, is characterized by round churches with a cone roof - very similar to ordinary houses of the inhabitants of the Ethiopian plateau living on. Despite these similarities, the interior is very different in that their rooms are laid out, based on a three-part division:
- A maqdas where the tabot is stored, and only priests may enter;
- An inner ambulatory called qiddist used by the communicant in the mass; and
- An outdoor ambulatory, qene mehlet , is used by dabtaras and is accessible to anyone.
Reform and influence on church architecture
In the early 16th century Martin Luther and the Reformation brought a period of radical change to the design of the church. According to the ideals of Protestant reform, the spoken words, the sermons, should be the primary action in church services. This implies that the pulpit becomes the centerpiece of the interior of the church and that the church should be designed to enable everyone to hear and see the minister. Pulp has always been the hallmark of Western churches. The birth of Protestantism led to a major shift in the way in which Christianity was practiced (and hence the design of churches).
During the Reformation period, there was an emphasis on "full and active participation". The focus of the Protestant churches is on the preaching of the Word, not the sacred emphasis. The table of the Lord's Supper becomes the wood to emphasize that Christ's sacrifice is made once for all and made faster to the congregation to emphasize the direct access of man to God through Christ.
In the Netherlands, the Reformed church in Willemstad, North Brabant, Koepelkerk (1607), the first Protestant church building in the Netherlands, was given an octagonal shape according to the focus of Calvinism on the sermon.
In England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it became common for Anglican churches to display the Royal Arms inside, either as a painting or as a relief, to symbolize the role of the king as head of the church.
modernism
The idea that worship is a corporate activity and that the congregation should not be excluded from the view or participation derived from the Liturgical Movement. The simple one-room plan is almost the essence of modernity in architecture. In France and Germany between the first and second World Wars, some major developments took place. The church at Le Raincy near Paris by Auguste Perret is called the starting point of the process, not only for its plans but also for the materials used, reinforced concrete. More central to process development was the German Schloss Rothenfels-am-Main which was overhauled in 1928. Rudolf Schwartz, the architect, was influential in later church buildings, not only in Europe but also in the United States. America. Schloss Rothenfels is a large rectangular room, with solid white walls, deep windows and a stone pavement. No decoration. The only piece of furniture consists of a hundred small black removable stools. For worship, an altar is established and the faithful surround it on three sides.
Corpus Christi in Aachen is the first parish church in Schwartz and adheres to the same principle, much like the Bauhaus art movement. Externally it is a cube plan; the interior has white walls and colorless windows, a langbau that is a narrow rectangle at the end is an altar. It should be, says Schwartz not 'christocentric' but 'theocentric'. In front of the altar there is a simple bench. Behind the altar is the enormous white wall of the back wall, signifying the invisible Father's territory. The influence of this simplicity spread to Switzerland with architects such as Fritz Metzger and Dominic BÃÆ'¶hm.
After the Second World War, Metzger continued to develop his ideas, especially with St. Franscus in Basel-Richen. Another important building is Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp by Le Corbusier (1954). Principles of simplicity and continuity of a similar style can be found in the United States, especially in the Roman Catholic Church at St. Procopius, in Lisle, near Chicago (1971).
A theological principle that produces change is the decree of the Sacrosanctum Concilium of the Second Vatican Council issued in December 1963. It encourages 'active participation' (in Latin: participatio actuosa ) by the faithful in liturgical celebrations by people and requires that new churches be built with this in mind (para. 124) Furthermore, rubrics and instructions encourage the use of free standing altars that enable priests to confront people. The effects of these changes can be seen in churches like the Roman Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral in Liverpool and Braslia, both circular buildings with free-standing altars.
Different principles and practical pressures result in other changes. Parish churches are definitely built more simply. Frequent lack of finance, as well as 'market' theology suggests the building of multi-purpose churches, where secular and sacred events may occur in the same space at different times. Again, the emphasis on the unity of liturgical action, countered by returning to the idea of ​​movement. Three spaces, one for baptism, one for the liturgy of the word and one for the eucharistic celebration with the congregation standing around the altar, promoted by Richard Giles in England and the United States. The congregation must process from one place to another. Such an arrangement is less suitable for big sessions than for small ones; for the first, the arrangement of the proscenium arch with a large amphitheater like the Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago in the United States is one answer.
Postmodernism
Like other Postmodern movements, postmodern movements in architecture are formed in reaction to the ideals of modernism in response to the perceived blandness, hostility, and utopianism of the Modern movement. Although rare in the design of church architecture, there are some important examples when architects begin to recover and update the historical style and "cultural memory" of Christian architecture. Famous practitioners include Dr. Steven Schloeder, Duncan Stroik, and Thomas Gordon Smith.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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