ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE: The Early Churches

 Churches built before the Fall of Rome in 476 AD

 

Rome's oldest church: the Basilica of Constantine from the 300's- We see use of the Roman Arch

Constantine filled Rome with churches to celebrate the Empire's conversion to Christianity

 

 

The basilica of St. John Lateran (320) in Rome built during the reign of Constantine

 

 

On the tomb of St. Peter was raised St. Peter's Basilica (325), torn down a thousand years later

in favor of today's monumental construction, New St. Peter's Basilica- also known as The Vatican

 

 

The Basilica of San Lorenzo in Milan (325)- Constantine had churches built in the large cities of the Empire

 

 

Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, built in 333 on order of Constantine

 

 

Inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, can we tell it is Roman?

 

 

The Church of the Crucifixion (326) aka (Holy Sepulchure) in Jerusalem, built on the cave where Christ's body was interned

 

 

Emperor Constantine built this church for Costanza (350) his daughter who died young

It is said he went here every day to seek comfort for her death

 

 

San Clemente in Rome (392) one of the masterpieces of early Christian church building

 

 

Inside of San Clemente, notice the floor pattern and the columns typical of early churches

 

 

Rome- Santa Maria Maggiore built in 432 in Rome

 

 

The church of St. John at Ephesus built in 450, now a ruin

 

 

Churches built (mostly in Orthodox style) after the Fall of Rome in the West

 

In 532 Justinian built in Constantinople the greatest building in the world, The Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia)

 

 

Like all Constantinople and Byzantium, this church has been converted to Islam, here is what it looks like today

 

 

The church of St. Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, built in Orthodox style, 546

 

 

Masterpiece inside San Vitale: Mosaic of Emperor Justinian

 

 

Another mosiac with Justinian's beloved wife Isadora

 

 

Angels in Heaven from another Ravenna Mosaic

 

 

St. Catherine's Monestary, built at the foot of Mt. Sinai (550) and still there today

 

 

 

Descent into the dark ages after the fall of Rome. The Baptistry of Poitiers in France is a crude construction but

comes from a time when, for 300 years, you could count the number of stone buildings built in Europe on one hand (600's)

 

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