Architecture

by N. D'Anvers

It was in the low, gloomy, dimly lighted subterranean galleries known as catacombs, hewn in the living rock near Rome, that Christian architecture may be said to have had its first crude beginnings. The passages in the walls of which the graves of the dead were hollowed out, widened at intervals into spacious vaulted halls, where the persecuted followers of the crucified Redeemer met in secret for worship or to take part in the funeral services for those they had lost.

It was long taken for granted that it was not until the first issue in A.D. 313 of the Edict of Milan by Constantine, Emperor of the West, and Licinius, Emperor of the East, that the professors of the new faith ventured to erect above ground buildings for the exercise of the rites of their religion, but recent discoveries prove that Christian churches were built as early as the 3rd century in many parts of the Roman empire. To quote but two cases in point, relics of a circular one with a small apse at the eastern end have been found at Antepellius in Asia Minor, and of one of the basilican type at Silchester in England. Moreover, heathen temples were occasionally converted into churches, whilst basilicas were sometimes used for Christian services just as they were.

Some few early Christian churches were possibly modelled on classic tombs such as those referred to in the chapter on Roman architecture, but the more usual form was the basilican, the altar having been placed on the raised platform within the semicircular apse at the eastern end, the bishops and clergy occupying the seats assigned in halls of justice to the prætor and his assessors, whilst the congregation met in the nave and aisles. Ere long, however, to this general plan was added the distinctive feature of transepts or transverse passages running across the entrance to the apse, thus giving to the whole building the form of a cross. Later structural changes were the erection of an arch above the altar, the heightening of the nave, the connecting of the columns between the nave and aisles by arches instead of horizontal architraves, the introduction of windows, to which the collective name of the clerestory or the clear-story was given, in the semicircular heads of the arches and more rarely into the upper part of the low external walls of the aisles, the apse, which was gradually lengthened eastwards, being left comparatively dark, the only light proceeding from the main body of the church. Simultaneously with or in some cases earlier than these alterations, a portico known as the narthex was added at the western end, extending across the whole width of the nave and aisles, for the use of those, such as catechumens or penitents, who were not privileged to enter the church itself. The narthex in its turn was set within an atrium or outer colonnaded court, in the centre of which was a fountain, used by worshippers for ablutions before entering the consecrated building.

A minor characteristic of early Christian churches was the richness of the internal decoration, mosaics that is to say, patterns or pictures made of many coloured pieces of glass or stone, combined in certain examples with marble carvings and gilding, adorned the vaulting, the wall, and even the floor, a kind of mosaic known as the opus alexandrinum being generally used for the last, the whole producing a very gorgeous but harmonious effect.

One of the most interesting existing early Christian churches, that remains very much what it was when first completed, is that of the Nativity at Bethlehem, built in A.D. 327 by the Empress Helena when on her quest for the True Cross, with the Convent to which it originally belonged, that was destroyed by the Turks in 1236 and later restored by the Crusaders. The Church of the Nativity rises above a natural cave now converted into a crypt or vaulted subterranean chamber. It is of cruciform plan, and though its unpretending exterior is of brick, the interior has four rows of massive stone pillars dividing the nave from the aisles, which as well as the choir at the eastern end have semicircular apses.

Contemporary with this humble building, that is closely associated with all the most sacred memories of the early Church, were the vast basilican places of worship erected at Rome by Constantine and his immediate successors, which have unfortunately been either destroyed or so much modified as to retain little of their distinctive character. The Cathedral of S. Peter occupies the site of one of them, which had five aisles, a nave 80 feet wide, a comparatively small apse, and a noble atrium; the Church of S. Giovanni in Laterano retains but a few details of its predecessor of the same name, but that of S. Paolo fuori le Mura or St. Paul without the walls, built by Theodosius in 386, is supposed to be a true copy, so far as structure is concerned, of the grand basilica destroyed by fire in 1823. It has a nave 280 feet long by 78 wide, and the whole building is 400 feet in length by 200 wide. A noble arch spans the intersection of the transepts, and lofty columns with richly carved capitals divide the nave from the aisles and the latter, of which there are five, from each other, but the roof is only a flat wooden one, the external walls are wanting in dignity and solidity, whilst the height, 100 feet only, is quite out of proportion with the otherwise noble dimensions.

Another very fine early basilican church in Rome is that of S. Maria Maggiore, occupying the site of a 5th century building, some of the marble columns of which with Ionic capitals have been incorporated in the later structure. The Churches of S. Agnese and S. Lorenzo are also of basilican plan, and have both the somewhat rare feature of galleries over the aisles. The former is but little altered since its erection, whilst the latter has gone through a long series of vicissitudes. It was founded in the 4th century and greatly added to in the 5th by Sixtus III, who joined a second church on to it, so that it had an apse at each end. Both these apses, with the walls between the earlier and the later buildings, were pulled down in the 13th century by order of Pope Honorius III, who had the earlier church converted into a choir and the later into a nave, with very satisfactory results.

Even more interesting than S. Lorenzo is S. Clemente, Rome, that consists of two buildings of widely separated dates one above another, the lower, which now serves as a crypt, supposed to have been built at the beginning of the 6th century, the upper not until 1108. Both are of the same general plan as the other basilican churches described, with certain differences in minor details, including in the more modern portion a low marble screen dividing the choir and altar from the nave.