RISE OF CHRISTANITY IN ROME

Religion was very important to the Romans. Within the Roman Empire, Christianity was banned and Christians were punished for many years.

The message of Christianity was spread around the Roman Empire by St. Paul who founded Christian churches in Asia Minor and Greece. Eventually, he took his teachings to Rome itself.

In AD 64, part of Rome was burned down. The Emperor Nero blamed the Christians and the people turned on them. Arrests and executions followed

The dangers faced by the Christians in Rome meant that they had to meet in secret. They usually used underground tombs as these were literally out of sight. In AD 313, the Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal and for the first time, they were allowed to openly worship. Churches were quickly built not just in Rome but throughout the empire.

Impact of Christianity on Roman Buildings

The impact of Christianity on Roman buildings was a negative one. The Imperial Forum was abandoned, temples were chopped down for building materials, walls were added between columns to create churches.

More often than not, stones from Roman buildings were fired in large kilns to make lime for mortar.

The sanctuary was eventually destroyed and the remnants redesigned as a relatively humble church.

St. John Lateran, RomeIt has long been held that early Christian architecture evolved out of the atrium or tablinium of the Roman houses where early Christians met.

The basilica that became so important was an imperial form and imposed as a pattern on church building by Constantine, the first example being the church of St. John Lateran, built from an imperial palace in Rome in 314 CE. For this church, the basilica was a logical choice.

It consisted of five aisles, with the central one higher to let in light from a clerestory. Two rows of 15 huge columns created the colonnade 75 meters long. A hundred years later, Rome saw the construction of Santa Sabina, a mature and stately replica of St. John Lateran. Its larger windows show a greater confidence in masonry construction

The whole was covered with a wooden roof. The roof beams shimmered in gold foil, and the walls were ornamented with mosaics high above the red, green and yellow marble columns of the nave. Seven golden altars and offering tables stood in the sanctuary.

St. Peter’s in RomeThough a basilica, St. Peter founded in 333 CE had a slightly different shape than St. John Lateran, reflecting its status as a martyrium.

A broad flight of stairs led to the atrium built on a vast platform over the sloping ground.

The church because of its use, was longer than St. John Lateran , totaling 112 meters in length.

The nave can be described as a covered street with colonnades on both sides. The columns were not built for the church but were taken from pre Christian Roman buildings.

Floors were carpeted with graves. In that sense, it was part street, part graveyard, and part sanctuary, on feast days it became a site of family celebrations.

To understand the significance of this building, one has to remember that the use of concrete had by this time been forgotten and that vaulting was thus, impossible. The art of masonry itself was diminished, even for a building commissioned by the emperor, the columns had to be taken from Roman buildings.

Despite the limitations, and perhaps even because of them the building achieved a directness and majesty as one of the first buildings in the evolving Mediterranean world that was meant to highlight the new religion.

FALL OF ROMAN EMPIRE

ECONOMIC CRISISThe economic crisis is said to have affected nearly every aspect of the Roman life, from the decline of the population to the lack of maintenance of infrastructure.

Two reasons for the lack of funds are a)wholesale hoarding of bullion by Roman citizens, and

b)the widespread looting of the Roman treasury by the "barbarians".

This, along with the enormous trade insufficiency stopped the growth of wealth in the west.

The rivers surrounding Rome had highly irregular courses. This resulted in frequent flooding, which damaged and destroyed all buildings situated below the hills of Rome and the empire lacked sufficient funding to repair its crumbling structures.

The Roman Empire lacked the necessary resources to keep such a vast empire intact. The empire reached such a point that it could no longer support itself, becoming top heavy, and crashed down like a tower that had grown too high for its own foundation

MILITARY DECAYRome's military strength gradually started declining. In the end it was this lack of security, which allowed the barbarians to bring down what had once been the mightiest empire in the world.

The destruction of Roman military power in the fifth century A.D. was the obvious cause of the collapse of Roman government in the West. The massive Roman army, with about 200,000 men, ultimately disintegrated into an unorganized mob.

Rome was also experiencing a population decrease during this time. As the population decreased, the available manpower also decreased.

DARK AGES BEGINThe "Dark Ages" is a historical periodization emphasizing the cultural and economic deterioration that supposedly occurred in Europe following the decline of the Roman Empire.

Originally it is a period of intellectual darkness between the extinguishing of the "light of Rome" after the end of Late Antiquity, and the rise of the Italian Renaissance in the 14th century.

The term "Dark Ages" was originally intended to denote the entire period between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance; the term "Middle Ages" has a similar motivation, implying an intermediate period between Classical Antiquity and the Modern era.

Many of the improvements in the quality of life introduced during the Roman Empire, such as a relatively efficient agriculture, extensive road networks, water-supply systems, and shipping routes, decayed substantially, as did artistic and scholarly endeavours. This decline persisted throughout the period of time.

Apart from that interlude, no large kingdom or other political structure arose in Europe to provide stability. The only force capable of providing a basis for social unity was the Roman Catholic Church. The Middle Ages therefore present the confusing and often contradictory picture of a society attempting to structure itself politically on a spiritual basis. This attempt came to a definitive end with the rise of artistic, commercial, and other activities anchored firmly in the secular world in the period just preceding the Renaissance

CRUSADES

CRUSADESThe Crusades were a series of religious expeditionary wars blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church, with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem. The Crusades were originally launched in response to a call from the leaders of the Byzantine Empire for help to fight the expansion into Anatolia of Muslim Seljuk Turks who had cut off access to Jerusalem.

The crusaders comprised military units of Roman Catholics from all over western Europe, and were not under unified command. Finally in the fall of 1096, the main Crusade left for Jerusalem. They went by different routes, some by land and some by sea, to Constantinople.

The largest concentration of Crusader architecture was Palestine.

The main territories comprising the Crusader dominions the kingdom of

a) Jerusalem ( modern Palestine), b) The county of Tripoli , c) The principality of Antioch (on the north coast of Syria), county of Edessa (with its capital at Urfa)

The main period of Crusader architecture was from the beginning of the twelfth century to the end of the thirteenth century

Crusader architecture - high quality ashlar masonry, massive construction of frequent use of masonry marks.

Sculptural decoration, extensive use of vaulting, their most distinctive work is found in castles and churches

The larger castles were designed for a specific location so that each building has a different plan.

Each castle had common features which could include a rock-cut fosse or ditch, a glacis or stone revetment and one or more sets of curtain wall linked by towers, with a keep in middle. Loopholes tended to be very large with wide reveals.

The most common form of fortification was the tower which is equivalent with the Arabic burj. Typically these had two or three vaulted stories which would provide protection and a good view of the surrounding countryside.

The entrance to a tower in the castle that was added during the Mamluk period with the seal of Baibars (the two lions) on it

The castle extends over a southern spur of the plateau. It is a notable example of Crusader architecture, a mixture of European, Byzantine, and Arab designs.

Kerak Castle

Built ->1142 In use ->1142–1917 Controlled by Crusader Ayyubids ;

 Mamluks ; Ottomans Kerak Castle is a

large crusader castle located in Kerak in Jordan. .

Its walls are strengthened with rectangular projecting towers and long stone vaulted galleries are lighted only by arrow slits.

The steep slopes of the spur are covered by a glacis.

In the lower court of the castle is the Karak Archaeological Museum, which was newly opened in 2004 after renovation work .

CHURCHESMost Crusader churches were small barrel-vaulted single-cell buildings with an apse at the west end.

The larger churches were mainly built on a cross-in-square plan, although it is noticeable that domes were rarely used.

RISE OF MONASTRIES

NANCHAN and FOGUANG MONASTERIESOne of the thousand wooden monasteries built during Sui and Tang period (800CE)

Foguang temple(857CE) was a more ambitious construction. It's hall is seven by four bayed and has a roof format that was known as the first class hip style, the columns divide the hall into an inner and outer space.

Nanchan temple is a relatively modest structure which was rebuilt in its present form in 782CE.

Main hall is dedicated to the bodhisattva Manjusri which means “Gentle Glory” was a semimythical figure.

Monasteries during this time generally consisted of a Buddha hall framed by a courtyard within a colonnaded enclosure with a north and south gate. The larger ones had east and west gates as well.

The courtyards were named after their principal buildings.

The overall style of both the temples is very similar with low pitch roof slopes, deep eaves, and dominating brackets.

MOORISH RULE IN SPAIN

The word Moors derives from the Latin mauri,a name for the berber tribes living in Roman Mauretania. It has no ethnographic meaning but can be used to refer to all Muslims, Berber or Arab, who conquered the Iberian Peninsula.

This Moorish land was known as Al-Andalus and included all of the Iberian Peninsula except for the extreme north-west from where the Christian Reconquest would originate.

The Moors expanded and improved Roman irrigation systems to help develop a strong agricultural sector.

They introduced many new crops including the orange, lemon, peach, apricot, fig and pomegranate as well as saffron, sugar cane, cotton, silk and rice which remain some of Spain's main products today.

MOORISH ARCHITECTURE

THE ALHAMBRAOf all their buildings, the Alhambra is universally considered to be the masterpiece of Spanish-Moslem art. It is fortified, as such citadel-palaces had to be protected from enemies.

The Alhambra was the stronghold of the Moorish Kings. The surrounding wall is more than a mile in extent, and in its prime the fortress would have held fully forty thousand soldiers.

Perched on a hilly terrace on the southern edge of Granada, Spain, Alhambra is an ancient palace and fortress complex with stunning frescoes and interior details.

 The Alhambra Palace was first constructed in the mid-1300s in Spain. Later, in the 16th century, Alhambra Palace was renovated and modified for King Charles V Columns and muqarnas appear in several chambers, and the interiors of numerous palaces are decorated with arabesques and calligraphy.

The palace rooms are arranged around the two courtyards: one is the Court of the Myrtles built in the first half of the 14th century, the area for the purpose of kings public audience. The other is the Court of the Lions (Patio de los Leones) built in the latter half of the 14th century, the private area, that is the seraglio (Harem) where general vassals could not enter.

In the characteristic style of the Mudéjar Alhambra Palace incorporates many traditional Islamic details:

Column arcadesFountainsReflecting poolsGeometrical patternsArabic inscriptionsPainted tiles

Court of the Lions and The Fabulous FountainCourt of the Lions is an oblong court, 116 ft (35 m) in length by 66 ft (20 m) in width, surrounded by a low gallery supported on 124 white marble columns.

 A pavilion projects into the court at each extremity, with filigree walls and a light domed roof. The square is paved with coloured tiles and the colonnade with white marble, while the walls are covered 5 ft (1.5 m) up from the ground with blue and yellow tiles, with a border above and below of enamelled blue and gold.

The columns supporting the roof and gallery are irregularly placed.

• In the centre of the court is the Fountain of Lions, an alabaster basin supported by the figures of twelve lions in white marble, not designed with sculptural accuracy but as symbols of strength and courage.

• It was designed to work as a clock. Each hour one lion would produce water from its mouth. This shows how important time was for Arabs and Muslims.

Court of the Myrtles  This court is 42 m (140 ft) long by 22 m (74 ft) broad, and in the centre there is a large pond set in the marble pavement, full of goldfish, and with myrtles growing along its sides.

 There are galleries on the north and south sides.

MADE BY: ARUSHI WADHWANIKITA KUMARWAMIKA BANSALPAYAL JAIN