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Eastern Orthodox church architecture constitutes a distinct, recognizable family of styles among church architectures. These styles share a cluster of fundamental similarities, having been influenced by the common legacy of Byzantine architecture from the Eastern Roman Empire.
- Introduction
- Orthodox Architecture
- Paintings and Mosaics
- The Present
- Suggestions For Further Reading
Anyone who witnesses an Orthodox liturgy for the first time will be struck by its frank appeal to the senses. The central actions of the Liturgy are, to be sure, the consecration and distribution of the bread and wine that constitute the Lord's Body and Blood. But the chanting and choral singing, the incense, the vestments and ritual movements of t...
Origin
The Orthodox church building is nothing more (or less) than the architectural setting for the Liturgy. Originally, converted houses served the purpose. The history of the church as a conspicuous structure begins with the official toleration of Christianity by Constantine the Great in 313, although there is evidence that sizeable churches existed before his time in some large cities. In the fourth and fifth centuries, buildings were erected to facilitate baptism (baptistries) and burial (mauso...
The Basilica
As early as the fifth century, church plans varied from one part of the Empire to another. A church in, say, Syria or Greece and one in Italy or Egypt were likely to differ noticeably. But most were basilicas, long rectangular structures divided into three or five aisles by rows of columns running parallel to the main axis, with a semi-cylindrical extension - an apse - at one end (usually the eastern) of the nave, or central aisle. The altar stood in front of the apse. A low barrier separated...
The Dome
The dome was put to its most spectacular use in Constantinople, in the emperor Justinian's great Church of the Divine Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, raised in a phenomenally short time, less than six years (532-537); for many centuries it was the largest church in Christendom. The architects, Anthemius and Isidorus, created a gigantic, sublime space bounded on the lower levels by colonnades and walls of veined marble and overhead by membranous vaults that seem to expand like parachutes opening against...
Historical Background
The history of the early Christian world was not planned for the convenience of art historians; the oldest preserved examples of Christian art date only from the late second or early third century. But the Orthodox Church holds the use of images to be an apostolic practice, and it attributes the earliest icons of the Virgin and Christ to Saint Luke. It also records that Christ created the first image of Himself by impressing His features on a piece of cloth - the Mandylion- that was later ens...
Development
Christian artists availed themselves of both styles. The third-century paintings in the Roman catacombs, for example, are classical, while the contemporary paintings in a baptistry discovered at Dura Europus, in Syria, incline to the abstract. But gradually a normative synthesis emerged. Constantine's choice of Byzantium as his capital in the fourth century ensured that the major institutions of that city, the Court and the Church, would play a leading role in this evolution. The result was B...
Early Byzantine Art
The way in which most themes were depicted soon became standardized, since the purpose of an image was not to display artistic originality but to reveal the subject's deeper, immutable meaning, which could be apprehended only under a form sanctioned by the Church's experience and made recognizable by common usage. This adherence to iconographic tradition did not inhibit artists from exercising their talents. It might even be argued that it freed them to do so. Byzantine art became the criteri...
Revival of Byzantine Art
A return to forms expressive of the ascetical and liturgical experience of the Church began in earnest after World War II. A very important artist in this regard was the outspoken Fotis Kontoglou (d. 1965), also famous in Greece as a writer, who had begun painting in the "old" style in the twenties. Another was the Russian Leonid Ouspensky, resident in Paris, and active after 1942. Both men were convinced that Orthodox art must first "come home, " by disregarding the worldly clamor for realis...
Orthodox Art in America
The first generation of Orthodox churches built in this country naturally corresponded to what the earliest Orthodox immigrants thought a church should look like. For those of Greek origin, this often meant a long nave, a single dome, and a twin-towered facade with columned porch and classical pediment, features prevalent in Greece at the turn of the century. This time-honored division of the plan into narthex, church proper, and sanctuary with prothesis and diaconicon areas was observed. Chu...
A tremendous amount has been published in English on Byzantine and Orthodox art and architecture. Most of the following titles are fairly easy to obtain. Cavarnos, Constantine. Byzantine Sacred Art. (Selections from the writings of Fotis Kontoglou.) New York: Vantage Press, 1957. -- --. Orthodox Iconography. Belmont, Massachusetts: Institute for By...
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Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Ireland ( Irish: Ceartchreideamh in Éirinn) is the presence of Eastern Orthodox Christians in the Republic of Ireland. Within Ireland, there are several formally organized parishes belonging to various autocephalous churches, primarily the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Romanian Orthodox Church ...
The Church of Saint Irene, also known as Hagia Irene or Hagia Eirene, is an Eastern Orthodox church in the city of Athens, Greece, built on the site of an older medieval church, located on Aiolou Street. It is dedicated to Saint Irene, and served as the metropolis of the new Greek state during the early years of independence in the 19th century.
The purpose of this is practical: to help parishes and monasteries who are building new churches or are adapting non-Orthodox buildings, particularly in Britain. There are three main types of church design: centrally oriented (octagonal, square or circular design); basilica; cruciform. To these we shall now turn.
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THE ORTHODOX MISSION IN IRELAND. The mission of the Orthodox Church in Ireland is seen as fulfilling the instruction of Christ our Saviour to ‘go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you’ (Mt 28, 19–20 ...
Jun 21, 2022 · Eastern Orthodox architecture in America is diverse and draws from a variety of sources. Church buildings typically follow one of three patterns. The immigrant church model features architectural configuration that resembles the models from a community’s native homeland.
