Byzantine Architecture: 3 Characteristics of Byzantine Style

The term Byzantine architecture denotes a host of buildings that workers constructed during the Byzantine Empire (330 AD–1453 AD), which affected wide swaths of Europe. Instances of this architectural style still pepper the landscape from Athens, Greece, to Sofia, Bulgaria, and beyond. Though medieval art and architecture took many forms, Byzantine architecture laid the groundwork for many different styles that would become popular throughout the period.

Byzantine buildings are relics of the Byzantine era, which lasted from the fourth through fifteenth centuries. Since then, plenty have become museums, which people of all religions, nationalities, and artistic temperaments admire.

• Beginning of the Byzantine era: When the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the Roman Empire’s capital to Byzantium in 330 AD, the Byzantine era officially began. From that point on, the Eastern Roman Empire became known as the Byzantine Empire. Shortly thereafter, the Byzantine capital’s name changed to Constantinople (in honor of Constantine). Byzantine art and architecture began to spread from the east to the west of the European continent.
• Association with Eastern Orthodoxy: After the Roman Catholic Church’s Great Schism in 1054, Byzantine architecture became more characteristic of the Eastern Orthodox Church than it was throughout more Catholic areas of western Europe. Still, early Byzantine architecture heavily influenced all church architecture throughout Europe, including buildings made in the Gothic or Romanesque style. Though these ornate churches remain popular even today for their religious art and ornamentation, people occasionally altered them due to the rise of iconoclasm (the banning of icons) throughout the middle Byzantine period.
• Fall of the Byzantine Empire: Byzantine architecture sprouted all throughout the continent as long as the empire lasted, even through the Crusades. It was only after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 that the late Byzantine architectural movement and empire collapsed. Constantinople became Istanbul and many Byzantine churches became mosques.

Byzantine architecture walks a line between the ornate and the simple. Here are three core characteristics common to nearly all Byzantine buildings:

1. 1. Domes: Most churches and buildings in the Byzantine style feature vaults, pendentives, and columns to hold up large domes at the center of their structure. These structures would interlock in an octagon figure to keep the domes sturdy and stable. Half-domes known as apses would often sit just above the altar of churches, while the central dome of the structure would lift far overhead.
2. 2. Greek cross plans: In keeping with their heritage in Orthodox Christianity, architects designed the floor plans for Byzantine churches in the shape of a cross. The narthex (or entrance) to the church began a long walkway forward over the cross-in-square plan, gradually giving way to an area near the pulpit that stretched out sideways. Many Latin churches followed a relatively similar approach.
3. 3. Iconography: Early Christian art decorates much of Byzantine church architecture. Frescoes line the walls, ivory carvings sit on shelves, and Byzantine mosaics adorn the entire interiors of these churches. Byzantine artists had to remove their work on occasion due to the fluctuating rise of iconoclastic officials in the Eastern Orthodox Church’s ranks. Still, people prize and venerate their depictions of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and other Christian symbols to this day.

While some Byzantine buildings no longer exist, others still adorn much of Europe’s landscape. Here are nine examples of Byzantine architecture:

1. 1. Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo: This Byzantine building stands in Ravenna, Italy. It serves as a testament to the architectural style’s influence, which even stretched into the Italian Catholic landscape.
2. 2. Basilica of San Vitale: Located in Italy, this Byzantine church features mosaics of Emperor Justinian I and his wife, Theodora. Justinian commissioned many of the most famous Byzantine churches, including this one and the Hagia Sophia.
3. 3. Church of the Holy Apostles: Multiple Byzantine churches throughout the west bore this name (the one in Thessaloniki, Greece, still stands). But the Ottoman Empire destroyed the church that once stood in the Byzantine capital Constantinople.
4. 4. Church of the Holy Savior in Chora: Though it still includes many icons of Orthodox Christianity (including the famous Christ Pantocrator image of Jesus with two fingers outstretched), this Byzantine church now serves as an Islamic mosque.
5. 5. Hagia Irene: One of the pinnacles of the Byzantine period, this church fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The government of Turkey stored weapons inside the Hagia Irene until they converted it into a museum in the eighteenth century. It now serves as a concert hall.
6. 6. Hagia Sophia: This church, whose name means “Holy Wisdom,” was perhaps the signature architectural accomplishment during the reign of Justinian. The Roman emperor commissioned its construction in the sixth century only for it to fall to the Turks in the fifteenth century. It’s been a church, a mosque, a museum, and a constant source of architectural inspiration.
7. 7. Hosios Loukas: This Mediterranean church has walls of marble, stone, and brick. This sort of architectural ingenuity was common in Byzantine architecture.
8. 8. Our Lady of Saidnaya Monastery: Built in Syria, this Byzantine monastery demonstrates the reach of the architectural movement’s influence. Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt is another key Middle Eastern Byzantine building.
9. 9. St. Mark’s Basilica: This church in Venice blends the Byzantine architectural style with the Romanesque and Gothic forms of the medieval period. Mosaics line most of the building’s nearly hundred thousand square feet.

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