• Poitiers, France
  

• mid-7th-century renovation of older building

• Rough masonry construction
  • Evokes but does not copy classical orders on its upper facade
  • done through the resuse of elements of Roman buildings (spoila)
  • Spoilas not used to signify triumphal reconsecration like Early Christian buildings, but because they were supposed to be pretigious and skillfully made
• Naturalism signals moments of cultural confidence
• Driven by a new realization of vulnerability

• Poitiers, France
  

• mid-7th-century renovation of older building

• Rough masonry construction
  • Evokes but does not copy classical orders on its upper facade
  • done through the resuse of elements of Roman buildings (spoila)
  • Spoilas not used to signify triumphal reconsecration like Early Christian buildings, but because they were supposed to be pretigious and skillfully made
• Naturalism signals moments of cultural confidence
• Driven by a new realization of vulnerability

• also known as the Carolingian age
  
• European architecture was relatively simple
• relying heavily on buildings with:
  • stone walls
  • wooden superstructures.

• was one of the most artistically creative areas of Europe at this time.
  
• It was culturally indebted to migrations of Germanic peoples, especially the Visigoths, who brought with them the Early Christian basilican tradition as it had been developed in Italy.

• Palencia, Spain
• 652 CE
• Small-scalled basilical plan with nave and flaning aisles
• Aisles are separated by horseshoe arcades resting on columns with Corinthian capitals and culimating in three rectangular apses
• all freestanding

• Palencia, Spain
• 652 CE
• Small-scalled basilical plan with nave and flaning aisle
• Aisles are separated by horseshoe arcades (pictured in this flashcard) resting on columns with Corinthian capitals and culimating in three rectangular apse
• all freestanding

• Palencia, Spain
• 652 CE
• Small-scalled basilical plan with nave and flaning aisle (pictured in this flashcard)
• Aisles are separated by horseshoe arcades resting on columns with Corinthian capitals and culimating in three rectangular apse
• all freestanding

• Palencia, Spain
• 652 CE
• Small-scalled basilical plan with nave and flaning aisle
• Aisles are separated by horseshoe arcades (pictured in this flashcard) resting on columns with Corinthian capitals and culimating in three rectangular apse
• all freestanding

• Zamora, Spain
• 680-711
• essentially a basiclican church along Early Christian lines
• Interior
  • not integrated but rather capartmentalized
    • nave is dramatically cut off by thetransept and is higher than the asile
    • the transept itself as well as the sanctuary are like appendages
      
•  All of this is in contrast to typical early Christian churches in Italy which still retained the Roman tendency to unite interior spatial volumes
• Partly this switch might have been due to increased separation of the clergy from the people
• Note that here too there are horseshoe arches used on the interior.

• Zamora, Spain
• 680-711
• essentially a basiclican church along Early Christian lines
• Interior
  • not integrated but rather capartmentalized
    • nave is dramatically cut off by thetransept and is higher than the asile
    • the transept itself as well as the sanctuary are like appendages
      
•  All of this is in contrast to typical early Christian churches in Italy which still retained the Roman tendency to unite interior spatial volumes
• Partly this switch might have been due to increased separation of the clergy from the people
• Note that here too there are horseshoe arches used on the interior.

• Zamora, Spain
• 680-711
• essentially a basiclican church along Early Christian lines
• Interior
  • not integrated but rather capartmentalized
    • nave is dramatically cut off by thetransept and is higher than the asile
    • the transept itself as well as the sanctuary are like appendages
      
•  All of this is in contrast to typical early Christian churches in Italy which still retained the Roman tendency to unite interior spatial volumes
• Partly this switch might have been due to increased separation of the clergy from the people
• Note that here too there are horseshoe arches used on the interior.

• King of the Franks from 768
  
• died in 814
• He conceived of himself as recreating the Christian Roman Empire of Constantine, much as Justinian has done.
  
• His great reordering of Europe was accomplished in close partnership with the Church, which stood to gain from a strong ruler who maintained peace and order within Europe and protected it from outside threats.

• Charlemagnes's principal palace residence
  
• Aachen, Germany,
  
• architect: Odo of Metz
• Begun in 792.
• Year: 796-804?
  
• entire plan was based on a modular base
  
• courtyard was perfect square
• resemblance to San Vitale in Ravenna

• Charlemagnes's principal palace residence
  
• Aachen, Germany,
  
• architect: Odo of Metz
• Begun in 792.
• Year: 796-804?
  
• entire plan was based on a modular base
  
• courtyard was perfect square
• resemblance to San Vitale in Ravenna

• The interior space and dome at the Palatine Chapel of Charlemagne at Aachen.
  
• Not only does this building look back to the glories of Rome, it also consciously evokes the Early Christian architecture of Ravenna - for instance, S. Vitale.

• This plan type: a Greek cross within a square with domical vaults at the corners
  
• This plan type later became standard in Byzantine architecture, but there do not seem to have been any examples earlier than the one here at Germigny-des-Prés.

Oratory at Germigny-des-Prés

Oratory at Germigny-des-Prés

(Central Apse of East)

• The "westwork" of the abbey of St. Vitus at Corvey in Germany
•  873-85
  
• gives us a sense of what the lost westwork at Charlemagne's palace at Aachen might have looked like.

•  c.800
  
• was modeled on both the Roman triumphal arch tradition, as well as on the fortified city gates of Rome.
  
• Its decorated surface presents a continuation of the abstracted classicism visible at the Baptistery of St-Jean at Poitiers, but with more clarity and finesse
• indicative of the broader revival of ancient Roman forms and practices under Charlemagne.

• was the most influential of all Western monks
• may be considered the father of Western monasticism.
  
• He was born around 480 and educated in Rome,
  
• sought the life of a hermit in a cave at Subiaco, outside the city.
  
• He then attracted followers with whom he founded the monastery of Monte Cassino (ca. 520), between Rome and Naples.
  
• Under Charlemagne, Benedict's Rule - a rule book for the organization of a monastery - became the basic guide for Western monasticism. 

• The so-called Plan of St. Gall (c.820)
• is a remarkable document: a labeled plan for an ideal Benedictine monastery.
  

• This plan shows the Great Mosque in Damascus, Syria, but can be taken as somewhat typical of mosque plans
• sahn or courtyard
  
  • contains an ablutions fountain where the worshipper washes hands and arms before worshipping.
    
• prayer hall
  • generally a broad shallow building, oriented towards the quibla wall, which is the wall closest to Mecca.
• All mosques are oriented towards Mecca (in Arabia).
  
• The mihrab on the quibla wall is the niche that indicates the direction of Mecca.

• year: unknown
• The Kaaba is the holiest place in Islam,
  
• a large masonry structure roughly in the shape of a 12 x 12 x 12 meter cube,
  
• made of granite
• Its four corners roughly face the compass points.
  
• It was a pagan shrine before Islam
• at Muhammad's behest it was taken from the pagans and reconsacrated to Islam.
  
• When Muhammad lived in Mecca, he viewed the Kaaba as his first and principal mosque and performed prayers there together with his followers – even when pagans were still using it as well.
  
• 630: Muhammed conquered Mecca and officially converted the area around the Kaaba to a mosque
  • since has been known as the Sacred Mosque.

• The Masjid al-Haram was significantly expanded and improved in the early centuries of Islam in order to accommodate the increasing number of Muslims who either lived in the area or made the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca.
  
• The centerpiece of the hajj is the circumambulation of the Kaaba. The mosque acquired its present shape in much more recent centuries.

• Islam was marked by great confidence born of military success and the sense of a secure dynastic power.
• The cultural center during this period was Syria (the capital of the Caliphate was Damascus, Syria),
•  substantial Greco-Roman influence in Umayyad architecture (since Syria had been part of the Roman Empire).
  
• The two greatest buildings erected by the Umayyads were the Great Mosque in Damascus, Syria, and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem 

• year: 687-91
• the oldest Islamic building to have survived intact in its origianal form
• It encloses a huge rock at its center
  • the highest point of Mt Moriah, from which the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven at the end of his Isra' (or Night Journey) to Jerusalem.
• In the Jewish tradition, this is the Foundation Stone
  • the symbolic foundation upon which the world was created, and the place where Abraham bound Isaac; various events in the life of Christ also occurred here, according to tradition, making it a sacred site to all three religions.
    
• The site was first consecrated by the Israelites who built the First and Second Temple here;
  
  • the Second Temple was torn down by the Romans in 70 CE
  • Emperor Hadrian (who built the Pantheon in Rome) built a Temple to Jupiter on the site
    •  possibly with a connected octagonal structure that might later have supplied the foundation for the Dome of the Rock.

• The dome of the building
  • constructed of wood
  • extends 20 meters across the rock i
  • is carried on pillars and columns.
    
    • The inner and outer rings of piers and columns are rotated 45 degrees, so that they form a geometrical grid in which square and circular geometries overlap. T
• This plan is similar to that of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, also in Jerusalem
  • where the dimensions of the inner circle of piers and columns is almost identical, and where a similar alternation of columns and piers is used.

• The so-called Plan of St. Gall (c.820)
• is a remarkable document: a labeled plan for an ideal Benedictine monastery.

• The interior space and dome at the Palatine Chapel of Charlemagne at Aachen.
  
• Not only does this building look back to the glories of Rome, it also consciously evokes the Early Christian architecture of Ravenna - for instance, S. Vitale.

• Charlemagnes's principal palace residence
  
• Aachen, Germany,
  
• architect: Odo of Metz
• Begun in 792.
• Year: 796-804?
  
• entire plan was based on a modular base
  
• courtyard was perfect square
• resemblance to San Vitale in Ravenna

• 687
  
• The dome of the building
  • constructed of wood
  • extends 20 meters across the rock i
  • is carried on pillars and columns.
    
    • The inner and outer rings of piers and columns are rotated 45 degrees, so that they form a geometrical grid (1st image) in which square and circular geometries overlap. T
• This plan is similar to that of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, also in Jerusalem
  • where the dimensions of the inner circle of piers and columns is almost identical, and where a similar alternation of columns and piers is used.

• The plan was not the only way in the the Dome of the Rock alluded to Christianity.
  
  • The monumental inscription within the drum – 787 feet long – is directed to the "people of the book" (Jews and especially Christians),
  • emphasizes that Islam, now the only true faith, accepts the prophets and Christ as a prophet, though denying his divinity.
    

• The building also parallels the Kaaba in Mecca
  •  for it is designed with circumambulation around a center in mind.
    
  • This might have occurred because the Caliph Abd al-Malik, who built it, did so at a time of political strife when there was a rival Caliph in Mecca (whom he would shortly overthrow).
    
  • Hence he might have been trying to create a kind of substitute Kaaba to rival the one that had been usurped in Mecca.

• 709-15
  
• one of the key building of Umayyad architecture and central monuments of Islamic architecture and culture.
  
• History before Islam:
  • on a site where once an Aramaic temple had been located
  • the Romans had built a Temple to Jupiter; this had been transformed into a Christian cathedral in the 4th century.
  •  After the Islamic conquest of Damascus in 661, the Muslims initially shared the church with the Christians (who were the majority in Damascus at the time).
    
  • In 706, the caliph then negotiated with Christian leaders to take over the space, and in return he promised that all the other churches in the city would be safe and that a new church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, could be built by the Christians. He then completely cleaned out the space within the old temple precinct, keeping only four corner towers, and built the mosque you see today. Reusing some of the columns and capitals from the older building.

• 709
• one of the key building of Umayyad architecture and central monuments of Islamic architecture and culture.
  
• History before Islam:
  • on a site where once an Aramaic temple had been located
  • the Romans had built a Temple to Jupiter; this had been transformed into a Christian cathedral in the 4th century.
  •  After the Islamic conquest of Damascus in 661, the Muslims initially shared the church with the Christians (who were the majority in Damascus at the time).
    
  • In 706, the caliph then negotiated with Christian leaders to take over the space, and in return he promised that all the other churches in the city would be safe and that a new church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, could be built by the Christians. He then completely cleaned out the space within the old temple precinct, keeping only four corner towers, and built the mosque you see today. Reusing some of the columns and capitals from the older building.

• The sahn of the mosque contains very famous mosaics depicting paradise.
  
• These mosaics show the survival of the Roman artistic heritage in early Islamic art.

• the interior of the prayer hall
• where two rows of columns support a wooden roof
• the mihrab aisle which runs through the center of the mosque from the main entrance to the mihrab
• [image]

• Fall of Umayyad in 750
• replaced by Abbasid
• Islamic culture becomes more synthetic
• golden age of islam
• when moved capitol,engineers and architects from all over Islamic world were summoned
• The result was one of the most remarkable examples of town planning in history
  • year: 762
  • a circular city 3000 meters across
  • surrounded by a wall covered with colorful tiles and enclosing two rings of residential zones surrounding an open area in the middle for the palace and mosque.
    
  • Four main gates were situated, not on the cardinal points (north, south, east, west), but on the major directions of the empire: Khorassan to the NE, Mecca to the SW, Byzantium to the NW, and India to the SE.
    
  • While this eventually became a major center with a population of about 2 million people, no archaeological trace of this phase in the history of Baghdad seems to have survived
  • our reconstruction is entirely based on literary sources.

• 852
• located 40 km north of Baghdad in the city of Samarra
• constructed by the Abbasids
• For centuries, this was the largest mosque in the world
• The sahn was here surrounded by porticos on three sides with the prayer hall at the end opposite the remarkable spiral minaret

• City Founded in 663, date of mosque was 836
  
• Kairawan was first muslim city in North Africa
• As the city grew, so did its population, eventually requiring the construction of an enlarged mosque
• the prayer hall is to the southeast (the direction of Mecca), and the courtyard is paved in marble.
• A great stepped minaret dominates the courtyard.

• City Founded in 663, date of mosque was 820-36
  
• Kairawan was first muslim city in North Africa
• As the city grew, so did its population, eventually requiring the construction of an enlarged mosque
• the prayer hall is to the southeast (the direction of Mecca), and the courtyard is paved in marble.
• A great stepped minaret dominates the courtyard.

• All around the sahn are arcades carried on columns,
• many if not most of which are spolia from earlier monuments.
  
• Note the horseshoe arches, originally a Visigothic form imported into Spain, and which seem to have reached North Africa after Spain became Muslim after 711.

• Certain columns reused from earlier monuments (predominantly Christian ones)
• were color-coded and placed in such a way that the red and blue columns respectively outlined in simplified form the ground plans of the Dome of the Rock and the Aqsa mosque, both in Jerusalem
• thus even in Tunisia, worshippers could make a symbolic pilgrimage to the most holy spots of the Muslim world.

• The mihrab aisle that runs down the center of the mosque

• The Abbasids ultimately proved unable to hold together the entire Islamic world under one government
• in time the caliphate broke up into regional caliphates.
  
• Spain wound up as one such independent caliphate, ruled by a faction of the old Umayyad dynasty.
  
• This kingdom of Al-Andalus had its capital in Cordoba, where one of the most remarkable mosques in all of Islamic architecture was built: the Great Mosque of Cordoba
• By the end of the 10th century, Cordoba was the biggest city in Europe and a vibrant capital of art, learning, science, and culture.
  
• It was also one of the most extraordinary examples in history of peaceful, long-term coexistence of Muslims, Christians, and Jews.
• In 1236, King Ferdinand of Castile conquered Spain and rejoined it to Christendom. The mosque was reconsecrated as a cathedral and a new cathedral building was built in the middle of the prayer hall. To this day, the building remains a church, not a mosque.

• 784
• Spain
  
• was loosely based on the Great Mosque of Damascus (the previous Umayyad capital).
  
• It was not built all at once but rather unfolded in four main phases, illustrated here, spanning the 9th and 10th centuries.

• The mihrab dome c.975
• signals the presence of the mihrab down below.
  

• There are also three other ribbed domes in a row over the maqsura, which is an enclosure around the area of the mihrab.
  
• dating from the end of the 10th century.
  
• These domes in particular were to be very influential for the great Italian architect Guarino Guarini, who more or less copied them in the late 17th century in his remarkable baroque churches in Turin, Italy, and elsewhere.
  [image]