CIRCULAR OR DOMICAL BUILDINGS.
CONTENTS.
Circular Churches with wooden roofs and with true domes in Syria and
Thessalonica—Churches of St. Sergius and Bacchus and Sta. Sophia,
Constantinople—Domestic Architecture—Tombs.
At the time of the erection of the churches described in the last
chapter, a circular domical style was being simultaneously elaborated in
the East, which not only gave a different character to the whole style,
but eventually entirely superseded the western basilican form, and
became an original and truly Byzantine art.
Constantine is said to have erected a church at Antioch which, from the
description given by Eusebius, was octagonal in plan.
On Mount Gerizim, on or near the site of the Samaritan temple, Justinian
built an octagonal church showing in its multifold chapels a
considerable advance towards Christian arrangements; it has, however
been so completely destroyed that only its foundation can now be traced,
from which the plan (Woodcut No. 296) was measured and worked out by Sir
Charles Wilson.
[Illustration: 296. Church on Mount Gerizim.]
[Illustration: 297. Cathedral at Bosra. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
At Bosra in the Hauran there is a church of perfectly well-ascertained
date—A.D. 512—which, when more completely illustrated, will throw
considerable light on the steps by which a Pagan temple was transformed
into a Christian church. It is a building externally square, but
internally circular (Woodcut No. 297). The central space is 91 ft. in
diameter, and was evidently covered with a wooden roof, according to M.
de Vogüé, supported on eight piers. The interest of the plan consists in
its showing the progress made in adapting this form to Christian
purposes, and it is to be hoped that further investigation may enable us
to supply all the steps by which the transformation took place. De Vogüé
is of opinion that there was a central dome carried on piers and columns
similar to the church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople, with
aisles round and gallery over them, the latter covered with a timber
roof, the holes in which the rafters were fixed being still visible.
Owing to want of lateral support the dome fell down, and at a later
period a small basilica church was erected within the enclosure in front
of the apse; the proximity of the piers of this church suggests that it
was covered with stone slabs according to the custom of the country. The
inscription over the principal entrance door states that the church was
dedicated to SS. Sergius and Bacchus, and was completed in the 400th
year of Bosra (511-512 A.D.). Another example exists at Kalat Sema’n, in
Northern Syria, and presents a combination of an octagonal with a
rectangular church very common in Armenia and Georgia. As is generally
the case there, they are very small in dimensions, the whole group only
measuring 120 ft. by 73. Their actual destination is not known, but M.
de Vogüé suggests that the triapsal arrangement in the octagonal
building points to its having been erected as a baptistery. This group
is situated about 200 yards from the main buildings illustrated in
Woodcut (No. 280).
[Illustration: 298. Section of Double Church at Kalat Sema’n. (From De
Vogüé.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]
[Illustration: 299. Plan, Kalat Sema’n. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
CHURCHES WITH DOMES.
Whether the dome of the Pantheon at Rome (p. 320) was erected in the
time of the Antonines, or before the time of Augustus, as was formerly
supposed, it is evident that the Romans had conquered the difficulties
of domic construction long before the transference of the seat of power
to Byzantium; the Pantheon being, up to this hour, the largest (single)
dome ever constructed by the hand of man. Simple and grand as it
undoubtedly is, it had several glaring defects in its design which the
Byzantines set themselves to remedy. The first was that twice the
necessary amount of materials was consumed in its construction. The
second, that the mode of lighting by a hole in the roof, which also
admitted the rain and the snow, was most objectionable before the
invention of glass. The third, that a simply circular plan is always
unmeaning and inconvenient. A fourth, that a circular building can
hardly, by any contrivance, be made to fit on to any other buildings or
apartments.
In the Minerva Medica (Woodcut No. 229) great efforts were made, but not
quite successfully, to remedy these defects. The building would not fit
on to any others, and, though an improvement on the design of the
Pantheon, was still far from perfect.
[Illustration: 300. Diagram of Byzantine Arrangement.]
[Illustration: 301. Diagram of Byzantine Pendentives.]
The first step the Byzantines made was to carry the dome on arches
resting on eight piers enclosing an octagon A (Woodcut No. 300); this
enabled them to obtain increased space, to provide nave, choir, and
transepts, and by throwing out niches on the diagonal lines, virtually
to obtain a square hall in the centre. The difference between the
octagon and circle is so slight, that by corbelling out above the
extrados of the arches, a circular base for the dome was easily obtained
B. The next step was to carry the dome on arches resting on four piers,
and their triumph was complete when by the introduction of
pendentives—represented by the shaded parts at D (Woodcut No. 301), they
were enabled to place the circular dome on a square compartment. The
pendentives and dome thus projected formed part of a sphere, the radius
of which was the half-diagonal of the square compartment. Constructively
it would probably have been easier to roof the space by an intersecting
vault; and even if of 100 or 150 ft. span it would without difficulty
have been effected. The difference between the intersecting vault and
the dome (as shown in Woodcuts 302 and 303; the former the tomb of Galla
Placidia, built 450 A.D., the latter the chapel of St. Peter Crysologus
attached to the archiepiscopal palace of about the same date, and both
in Ravenna) is perhaps the most striking contrast the history of
architecture affords between mechanical and ornamental construction.
Both are capable of being ornamented to the same extent and in the same
manner; but the difference of form rendered the dome a beautiful object
in itself wholly irrespective of ornament, whereas the same cannot
always be said of the intersecting barrel vault. Altogether, the effect
would have been architecturally so infinitely inferior, that we cannot
but feel grateful to the Byzantines that they persevered, in spite of
all mechanical temptations, till they reached the wonderful perfection
of the dome of Sta. Sophia.
[Illustration: 302. Tomb of Galla Placidia, Ravenna. (For plan see
Woodcut No. 434.)]
[Illustration: 303. Chapel in Archiepiscopal Palace, Ravenna.]
Among the earliest domical churches found in the East is that of St.
George at Thessalonica. It is also, perhaps, the finest example of its
class belonging strictly to that group which has been designated above
as the Eastern Romanesque.
[Illustration: 304. Plan of St. George at Thessalonica. Scale 100 ft. to
1 in.]
As will be seen from the plan it is a circular apartment, 79 ft. in
diameter, surrounded by walls 20 ft. in thickness, into which are cut
seven great niches; two apparently serving as entrances, opposite one of
which is a bema or presbytery of considerable importance and purely
Christian form. The dome is hemispherical, pierced at its base by eight
semi-circular lunettes, and externally covered and concealed by a wooden
roof. This form of roof is first found in the West at Nocera dei Pagani
(p. 547), but the dome there is only half the diameter of this one, and
of a very different form and construction. The dome of St. George’s
retains its internal decorations, which are among the earliest as well
as the most interesting Christian mosaics in existence.[224] The
architecture presented in them bears about the same relation to that in
the Pompeiian frescoes which the Jacobæan does to classical
architecture, and, mixed with Christian symbols and representations of
Christian saints, makes up a most interesting example of early Christian
decoration.
[Illustration: 305. Section of Church of St. George at Thessalonica.
(From Texier and Pullan.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]
[Illustration: 306. View of Church of St. George at Thessalonica. (From
Texier and Pullan.)]
No inscriptions or historical indications exist from which the date of
the church can be fixed. We are safe, however, in asserting that it was
erected by Christians, for Christian purposes, subsequently to the age
of Constantine. If we assume the year 400 as an approximate date we
shall probably not err to any great extent, though the real date may be
somewhat later.
[Illustration: 307. Plan of Kalybe at Omm-es-Zeitoun (Syria). No Scale.]
How early a true Byzantine form of arrangement may have been introduced
we have no means of knowing; but as early as the year 285—according to
De Vogüé—we have a Kalybe[225] at Omm-es-Zeitoun, which contains all the
elements of the new style. It is square in plan, with a circular dome in
its centre for a roof. The wing walls which extend the façade are
curious, but not singular. One other example, at least, is found in the
Hauran, at Chaqqa, and there may be many more.
[Illustration: 308. View of Kalybe at Omm-es-Zeitoun. (From De Vogüé.)]
Still, in the Hauran they never seem quite to have fallen into the true
Byzantine system of construction, but preferred one less mechanically
difficult, even at the expense of crowding the floor with piers. In the
church at Ezra, for instance, the internal octagon is reduced to a
figure of sixteen sides before it is attempted to put a dome upon it,
and all thought of beauty of form, either internally or externally, is
abandoned in order to obtain mechanical stability—although the dome is
only 30 ft. in diameter.
As the date of this church is perfectly ascertained (510) it forms a
curious landmark in the style just anterior to the great efforts
Justinian was about to make, and which forced it so suddenly into its
greatest, though a short-lived, degree of perfection.
[Illustration: 309. Plan of Church at Ezra. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
[Illustration: 310. Section of Church at Ezra. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]
CONSTANTINOPLE.
As before mentioned, all the churches of the capital which were erected
before the age of Justinian, have perished, with the one exception of
that of St. John Studius mentioned above (page 421). This may in part be
owing to the hurried manner in which they were constructed, and the
great quantity of wood consequently employed, which might have risked
their destruction anywhere. It is, however, a curious, but
architecturally an important, fact that Byzantium possessed every
conceivable title to be chosen as the capital of the Empire, except the
possession of a good building-stone, or even apparently any suitable
material for making good bricks. Wood seems in all times to have been
the material most readily obtained and most extensively used for
building purposes, and hence the continual recurrence of fires, from
before the time of Justinian down to the present day. That monarch was
the first who fairly met the difficulty; the two churches erected during
his reign, which now exist, are constructed wholly without wood or
combustible materials of any sort—and hence their preservation.
The earliest of these two, popularly known as the “Kutchuk Agia Sophia,”
or lesser Sta. Sophia, was originally a double church, or more properly
speaking two churches placed side by side, precisely in the same manner
as the two at Kalat Sema’n (Woodcut No. 298). The basilica was dedicated
to the Apostles Peter and Paul; the domical church, appropriately, to
the Martyrs Sergius and Bacchus. The former has entirely disappeared,
from which I would infer that it was constructed with pillars and a
wooden roof.[226] The latter remains very nearly intact. The frescoes
and mosaics have, indeed, disappeared from the body of the church,
hidden, it is to be hoped, under the mass of whitewash which covers its
walls—in the narthex they can still be distinguished.
[Illustration: 311. Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus.]
[Illustration: 312. Section of Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus. Scale
50 ft. to 1 in.]
[Illustration: 313. Capital from Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus.
(From Lenoir.)]
[Illustration: 314. Entablature from Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus.
(From Lenoir.)]
The existing church is nearly square in plan, being 109 ft. by 92 over
all, exclusive of the apse, and covering only about 10,000 sq. ft. It
has consequently no pretensions to magnificence on the score of
dimensions, but is singularly elegant in design and proportion.
Internally, the arrangement of the piers of the dome, of the galleries,
and of the pillars which support them, are almost identical with those
of St. Vitale at Ravenna, but the proportions of the Eastern example are
better, being 66 ft. in height by 52 in diameter, while the other, with
the same diameter, is nearly 20 ft. higher, and consequently too tall to
be pleasing.
The details of this church are generally well designed for the purposes
to which they are applied. There is a certain reminiscence of classical
feeling in the mouldings and foliage—in the latter, however, very faint.
The architrave block (No. 313) here seems almost to have superseded the
capital, and what was once a classical entablature has retained very
little of its pristine form (No. 314), and indeed was used
constructively only, for the support of a gallery, or some such
mechanical requirement. The arch had entirely superseded it as an
ornamental feature long before the age of Justinian.
STA. SOPHIA.
Although the building just described, and others that might be quoted,
probably contain the germs of all that is found in Sta. Sophia, they are
on so small a scale that it is startling to find Justinian attempting an
edifice so grand, and so daring in construction, without more experience
than he appears to have obtained. Indeed so exceptional does this great
structure appear, with our present knowledge, that we might almost feel
inclined at first sight to look upon it as the immediate creation of the
individual genius of its architect, Anthemius of Thralles; but there can
be little doubt that if a greater number of contemporary examples
existed we should be able to trace back every feature of the design to
its origin. The scale, however, on which it was carried out was
certainly original, and required great boldness on the part of the
architect to venture upon such a piece of magnificence. At all events,
the celebrated boast of its founder on contemplating his finished work
was more than justified. When Justinian exclaimed, “I have surpassed
thee, O Solomon,” he took an exaggerated view of the work of his
predecessor, and did not realize the extent to which his building
excelled the Jewish temple. The latter was only equal to a small church
with a wooden roof supported by wooden posts, and covering some 7200 sq.
ft. Sta. Sophia covers ten times that area, is built of durable
materials throughout, and far more artistically ornamented than the
temple of the Jews ever could have been. But Justinian did more than
accomplish this easy victory. Neither the Pantheon nor any of the
vaulted halls at Rome equal the nave of Sta. Sophia in extent, or in
cleverness of construction, or in beauty of design. Nor was there
anything erected during the ten centuries which elapsed from the
transference of the capital to Byzantium till the building of the great
mediæval cathedrals which can be compared with it. Indeed it remains
even now an open question whether a Christian church exists anywhere, of
any age, whose interior is so beautiful as that of this marvellous
creation of old Byzantine art.
The original church of Sta. Sophia which had been erected by Constantine
was, it seems, burnt to the ground in the fifth year of Justinian, A.D.
532, when he determined to re-erect it on the same spot with more
magnificence and with less combustible materials. So rapidly were the
works pushed forward, that in six years it was ready for dedication,
A.D. 537. Twenty years afterwards a portion of the dome fell down in
consequence of an earthquake; but this damage was repaired, and the
church re-dedicated, A.D. 563, in the form, probably very nearly, in
which we now find it.
[Illustration: 315. Plan of Sta. Sophia. Upper Storey and Ground Floor.
Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
In plan it closely approaches an exact square, being 235 ft. north and
south by 250 east and west, exclusive of the narthex and apse. The
narthex itself is a splendid hall, 205 ft. in length internally, by 26
ft. wide, and two storeys in height. Beyond this there is an exo-narthex
which runs round the whole of the outer court, but this hardly seems to
be part of the original design. Altogether, the building, without this
or any adjuncts which may be after-thoughts, covers about 70,000 sq.
ft., or nearly the average area of a mediæval cathedral of the first
class.
[Illustration: 316. Elevation Façade of Sta. Sophia at Constantinople.
(From Salzenberg.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
Externally the building (Woodcut No. 316) possesses little architectural
beauty beyond what is due to its mass and the varied outline arising
from the mechanical contrivances necessary to resist the thrust of its
internal construction. It may be that, like the early Christian
basilicas at Rome, it was purposely left plain to distinguish it from
the external adornment of Heathen temples, or it may have been intended
to revêt it with marble, and add the external ornament afterwards.
Before we became acquainted with the ornamental exteriors of Syrian
churches, the former theory would seem the more plausible, though it can
hardly now be sustained; and when we consider that the second dedication
only took place the year before Justinian’s death, and how soon
troublous times followed, we may fairly assume that what we now see is
only an incomplete design. Whatever may be the case with the exterior,
all the internal arrangements are complete, and perfect both from a
mechanical and an artistic point of view. In such a design as this, the
first requirement was to obtain four perfectly stable arches on which
the dome might rest. The great difficulty was with the two arches
running transversely north and south. These are as nearly as may be 100
ft. span and 120 high to the crown, and 10 ft. on the face. Each of them
has a mass of masonry behind it for an abutment, 75 ft. long by 25 ft.
wide, only partially pierced by arches on the ground and gallery floor;
and as the mass might have been carried to any height, it ought, if
properly constructed, to have sufficed for an arch very much wider and
more heavily weighted than that which it supports. Yet the southern wall
is considerably bulged, and the whole of that side thrown out of the
perpendicular. This probably was the effect of the earthquake which
caused the fall of the dome in 559, since no further settlement seems to
have taken place. The longitudinal arches presented no difficulty. The
distance between the solid parts of the piers was 75 ft., and this was
filled up with a screen wall supporting the inner side of the arch; so,
unless that was crushed, the whole was perfectly stable. Pendentives
between these four arches ought not to have presented any difficulties.
It would, however, have been better, from an architectural point of
view, if they had been carried further up and forward, so as to hang a
weight inside the dome to counteract the outward thrust, as was
afterwards so successfully practised at Beejapore.[227] As it is, the
dome rests rather on the outer edge of the system, without sufficient
space for abutment. In itself the dome is very little lower than a
hemisphere, being 107 ft. across by 46 ft. in height. Externally, it
would have been better if higher; for internal effect this is
sufficient. Its base is pierced by forty small windows, so small and so
low as not to interfere in any way with the apparent construction, but
affording an ample supply of light—in that climate at least—to render
every part of the dome bright and cheerful.
[Illustration: 317. Section of Sta. Sophia from E. to W. Scale 100 ft.
to 1 in.]
Beyond the great dome, east and west, are two semi-domes of a diameter
equal to that of the great dome, and these are again cut into by two
smaller domes, so that the building, instead of being a Greek cross, as
usually asserted, is only 100 ft. across in the centre and 125 wide
beyond the central space each way. There is a little awkwardness in the
way in which the smaller semi-domes cut into the larger, and the three
windows of the latter are unconnected with any other part of the design,
which is unpleasing, but might easily be remedied in a second attempt.
These very irregularities, however, give a variety and appropriateness
to the design which has probably never been surpassed. A single dome of
the area of the central and two semi-domes would not have appeared
nearly so large, and would have overpowered everything else in the
building. As it is, the eye wanders upwards from the large arcades of
the ground floor to the smaller arches of the galleries, and thence to
the smaller semi-domes. These lead the eye on to the larger, and the
whole culminates in the great central roof. Nothing, probably, so
artistic has been done on the same scale before or since. In these
arrangements Sta. Sophia seems to stand alone.
If, however, the proportions of this church are admirable, the details
are equally so. All the pillars are of porphyry, verd antique, or
marbles of the most precious kinds. The capitals are among the most
admirable specimens of the style. It will be remembered that the
governing line of a classical Corinthian capital is a hollow curve, to
which acanthus-leaves or other projecting ornaments were applied. When
the columns were close together, and had only a beam to support, this
form of capital was sufficient; but when employed to carry the
constructive arches of the fabric its weakness became instantly
apparent. Long before Justinian’s time, the tendency became apparent to
reverse the curve and to incise the ornament. In Sta. Sophia the
transition is complete; the capitals are as full as elegance would
allow, and all the surfaces are flat, with ornaments relieved by
incision. In the lower tier of arches (Woodcut No. 318) this is boldly
and beautifully done, the marble being left to tell its own story. In
the upper tier, further removed from the eye, the interstices are filled
in with black marble so as to ensure the desired effect.
[Illustration: 318. Lower Order of Sta. Sophia. (From Salzenberg.)]
All the flat surfaces are covered with a mosaic of marble slabs of the
most varied patterns and beautiful colours; the domes, roofs, and curved
surfaces, with a gold-grounded mosaic relieved by figures or
architectural devices. Though much of the mosaic is now concealed,
enough is left to enable the effect of the whole to be judged of, and it
certainly is wonderfully grand and pleasing. The one thing wanting is
painted glass, like that which adorns the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem,
to render this building as solemnly impressive as it is overpoweringly
beautiful.
Sta. Sophia is so essentially different from the greater number of
churches, that it is extremely difficult to institute a comparison
between them. With regard to external effect, Gothic cathedrals
generally excel it; but whether by accident or by the inherent necessity
of the style is by no means so clear. In so far as the interior is
concerned, no Gothic architect ever rose to the conception of a hall 100
ft. wide, 250 ft. in length, and 180 ft. high, and none ever disposed
each part more artistically to obtain the effect he desired to produce.
Where the Byzantine style might profit from the experience subsequently
gained by Gothic architects is in the use of mouldings. The one defect
in the decoration of Sta. Sophia is that it depends too much on colour.
It would have been better if the pier-arches, the window-frames, and the
string-courses generally had been more strongly accentuated by moulding
and panellings, but this is a slight defect among so many beauties.
[Illustration: 319. Upper Order of Sta. Sophia. (From Salzenberg.)]
A comparison with the great Renaissance cathedrals is more easy, but
results even more favourably to the Byzantine example. Two of these have
domes which are considerably larger—St. Peter’s at Rome and Sta. Maria
at Florence being each 126 ft.; St. Paul’s, London (108), is within a
foot of the same diameter, all the rest are smaller.[228] This, however,
is of less consequence than the fact that they are all adjuncts to the
design of the church. None of them are integral or supported by the rest
of the design, and all tend to dwarf the buildings they are attached to
rather than to heighten the general effect. With scarcely an exception
also all the Renaissance cathedrals employ internally great sprawling
pillars and pilasters, designed for external use by the Romans, which
not only diminish the apparent size of the building but produce an
effect of unreality and sham utterly fatal to true art.
In fact, turn it as we will, and compare it as we may with any other
buildings of its class, the verdict seems inevitable that Sta.
Sophia—internally at least, for we may omit the consideration of the
exterior, as unfinished—is the most perfect and most beautiful church
which has yet been erected by any Christian people. When its furniture
was complete the verdict would probably have been still more strongly in
its favour; but so few of the buildings described in these pages retain
these adjuncts in anything like completeness that they must be withdrawn
from both sides and our remarks be confined to the architecture, and
that only.
The church of Sta. Sophia at Thessalonica, according to Greek tradition,
was built by Justinian in the latter part of his reign.[229] It is a
church of considerable dimensions, measuring 140 ft. east and west by
118 ft. in width, with a dome 33 ft. in diameter. It possesses also an
upper gallery, and its arrangements generally are well considered and
artistic. There does not seem to be any documentary evidence of its age,
but judging from the details published in Texier, the date ascribed to
it seems probable. This has been further established lately from an
inscription found in the apse, which as well as the dome still retain
their ancient mosaics; the inscription is incomplete, but Messrs.
Duchesne and Bayet, in an appendix to their work on Mount Athos, ascribe
it to the second half of the 6th century. The church possesses one
special characteristic: above the pendentives is a low drum, circular
internally,[230] in which windows are pierced, but which, externally, is
carried up square: by this means the angle piers are well weighted and
are thus enabled to resist more effectually the thrust of the arches
carrying the pendentives. The two side walls also, which in Sta. Sophia
at Constantinople were built almost flush with the inner arch, leaving
outside a widely-projecting arch thrown across between the buttresses to
carry the buttresses of the dome, are here placed flush with the outside
of the arch, thus giving increased space to the interior.
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.
The publication of the Count De Vogüé’s book has enabled us to realise
the civil and domestic architecture of Syria in the 5th and 6th
centuries with a completeness that, a very short time ago, would have
been thought impossible. Owing to the fact that every part of the
buildings in the Hauran was in stone, and that they were suddenly
deserted on the Mahomedan conquest, never, apparently, to be
re-occupied, many of the houses remain perfectly entire to the present
day, and in Northern Syria only the roofs are gone.
Generally they seem to have been two storeys in height, adorned with
verandahs supported by stone columns, the upper having a solid
screen-fence of stone about 3 ft. 6 in. high, intended apparently as
much to secure privacy to the sleeping apartments of the house as
protection against falling out. In some instances the lower storey is
twice the height of the upper, and contained the state apartments of the
house. In others, as in that at Refadi (Woodcut No. 320), it seems to
have been intended for the offices. In the plan of a house at Moudjeleia
(Woodcut No. 321) the principal block of the house is in two storeys,
with portico on ground floor and verandah over. The buildings at the
back with their courtyard were probably offices, and those in front by
the side of the main entrance warehouses or stores.
[Illustration: 320. Elevation of House at Refadi. (From De Vogüé.) Scale
20 ft. to 1 in.]
In some instances one is startled to find details which we are
accustomed to associate with much more modern dates; as, for instance,
this window (Woodcut No. 322) from the palace at Chaqqa, which there
seems no reason whatever for doubting belongs to the 3rd
century—anterior to the time of Constantine! It looks more like the
vagary of a French architect of the age of Francis I.
[Illustration: 321. Plan of house at Moudjeleia.]
[Illustration: 322. Window at Chaqqa. (From De Vogüé.)]
The building known as the Golden Gateway at Jerusalem and attributed to
Justinian, bears in its details many striking resemblances to those of
the 5th and 6th centuries in Central Syria, illustrated in De Vogüé’s
book. It is situated on the east side of the Haram enclosure, and
consists of a vestibule divided by columns into two aisles of three bays
each vaulted with a cupola[231] carried on arches, between which and the
capitals of the columns is found the Byzantine dosseret already referred
to. Within the eastern doorways (said to have been blocked up by Omar)
are two huge monoliths 14 ft. 6 in. and 11 ft. respectively, the
doorposts of an earlier gateway. Externally, on the entrance fronts
(east and west), the entablature of the pilasters is carried round the
circular-headed doorways which they flank; the earliest instance of this
development is found in the Palace of Diocletian at Spalato, and there
is a second example in the Roman gateway to the Mosque of Damascus,
which probably suggested the idea to the Byzantine builders; the sharp
stiff foliage of Greek type with which the ornament is carved on the
Golden Gate agrees in style and character with that in the church of St.
Demetrius at Thessalonica dating from the commencement of the 6th
century.
[Illustration: 323. Interior of the Golden Gateway. (From a Drawing by
Catherwood. Originally published in Fisher’s ‘Oriental Album.’)]
Of similar style and character are the arch-moulds of the double gate on
the south wall of the Haram, and the cupolas of the interior vestibule,
the columns carrying them however being probably of earlier date and
possibly part of the substructure of Herod’s temple. The surface
decoration of these cupolas is similar to that found in Central Syria.
[Illustration: 324. Golden Gateway (west side). (From a Photograph.)]
The sepulchral remains of Syria, both structural and rock-cut, seem
nearly as numerous as the dwellings of the living, and are full of
interest, not only from their frequently bearing dates, but from their
presenting new types of tombs, or old types in such new forms as
scarcely to be recognizable.
[Illustration: 325. Roof of one of the Compartments of the Gate Huldah.
(From De Vogüé.)]
The oldest example, that of Hamrath in Souideh, dates from the 1st
century B.C., and consists of a tomb 28 ft. square decorated with
semi-detached Doric columns; the roof is gone, but it was probably
covered with one of pyramidal form like the tomb of Zechariah (Woodcut
No. 238).
The tomb of Diogenes at Hass (Woodcut No. 326), also square, consisted
of two storeys, with a portico on the ground storey on one side, and a
peristyle on all four sides of the upper storey, above which rose the
central walls carrying a pyramidal roof, not stepped, as in the
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, but with projecting bosses on each stone.
The same class of roof is found on other tombs, being adopted probably
as the simplest method of covering over the tomb; these tombs date from
the 4th and 5th centuries, and in all cases the sepulchral chambers
within them are vaulted with large slabs of stone carried on stone ribs.
[Illustration: 326. Tomb at Hass]
Besides these, there is another class of tomb apparently very numerous,
in which the sepulchral chamber is below the ground, with vaulted
entrance rising to form a podium on which columns either two or four in
number are erected;[232] in the latter case the columns bearing an
entablature with small pyramidal roof; in the former a fragment of
architrave only, the two columns being sometimes tied together one-third
of the way down by a stone band with dentils carved on it: these tombs
are, many of them, dated, and belong to the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
With our present limits it is only possible to characterize generally
the main features of the Byzantine style, and to indicate the sources
from which further information may be obtained. In the present instance
it is satisfactory to find that ample materials now exist for filling up
a framework which a few years ago was almost entirely a blank. Any one
who will master the works of De Vogüé, or Texier, or Salzenberg, and
other minor publications, may easily acquire a fair knowledge of the
older Byzantine style of architecture. Once it is grasped it will
probably be acknowledged that there are few more interesting chapters
than that which explains how a perfect Christian Church like that of
Sta. Sophia was elaborated out of the classical edifices of ancient
Rome. It will also probably be found that there are few more instructive
lessons to be learnt from the study of architectural history than the
tracing of the various contrivances which were so earnestly employed,
during the first two centuries of Christian supremacy, in attaining this
result.