Architecture at Everest - Semester 2: Week 3 Post 4

Intersession
Architecture and Design
Audie Santos
6/5/13

June 5th, 2013

Documentary:  Early Christian Architecture

A view from the inside of the Hagia Sophia

Looking back, this is form of architecture was used a little closer to medieval times, therefore it is not considered ancient. This type of architecture was used by the Roman Empire which has split into to sects. The Eastern and Western Empires of Rome. The West being having Rome as the capital and speaking Latin. While the East became the Byzantine Empire and spoke Greek and used Turkey as their capital. The Western Romans were more traditional. However, the Byzantine Empire differed in architectural feats and style.  As opposed to old Roman style they had used before, the Byzantine mixed it up a little and added in a little more flair to the old tradition. For example the Roman Empire followed Greek architectural styles from the Columns on the outside and walls on the inside. For the Byzantine Empire, they placed the walls on the outside and columns on the inside.

The building pictured above is the Hagia Sophia. It is one of the world's largest Cathedrals before it became a mosque and then a museum you can visit today.  Hagia Sophia in means "holy wisdom" in Greek. This building was an architectural feat supervised by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian. Justinian wanted to display his power and gain trust of the people, so he built this Cathedral in honor of his religion. over the course of building, Justinian's architects faced many problems such as fitting a circle in a square. They were able to fix this by creating a curved piece that fitted the square to the circle. They then added smaller  quarter hemispheres to cover up the curved pieces. Later when the Byzantine empire became a part of Turkey, this Cathedral served as a mosque.

http://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/late-antique-and-byzantine-spaces/deck/4758023