~

Richard Krautheimer

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND

BYZANTINE
ARCHITECTURE
Penguin Books

PART ONE

CHRISTIAN BUILDING PRIOR TO CONSTANTINE

CHAPTER I

THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE

A.D. SO-I SO

During the first three centuries of the Christian era,

two elements determine the position of Christianity:
that it evolved a new faith, and that it did so primarily
within the social, cultural, and religious framework
of the Late Roman Empire. Christianity's organization, its needs, and even its conflicts with Rome were
largely determined by conformity with or by opposition to this framework; and its architecture, as far as
we know it, must be seen within the context of the
Raman-Hellenistic world.'
Religion in Imperial Rome had split into two
spheres. Public worship of the gods that guaranteed
the welfare of the Empire- Jupiter, the Invincible
Sun, or the Emperor's Divine Majesty- was a civic
duty performed according to state ritual; worship
was required only of those in the sphere or under the
scrutiny of officialdom. Spiritual needs were
satisfied by divinities of one's personal choice: either
n~tive tribal gods or saviour gods, frequently of
oriental origin. All these cults, whether centred on
Mithras, on the Great Mother, or on Isis, guaranteed salvation after death to the initiated - small,
select, and segregated groups in which the brethren
might forget social distinctions. No conflict need
arise as long as the cult of the Emperor and the cults
of personal salvation were not mutually exclusive, or
as long as the mandatory worship of officialdom
could be avoided. And for the masses, the latter was
not difficult.

Within the sphere of Late Antique saviour religions, Christianity grew almost unnoticed for at least
a generation after Christ's death. Indeed, were it not
for St Paul, the first Christian congregations might
well have remained insignificant heretical groups
within the Jewish communities of Palestine - that
obstreperous Aramaic-speaking backwater. Paul
planted the seeds of a world religion in Christianity.
He spread the gospel to both Jews and heathens
living in the hellenized cities of Greece, along the
coast of Asia Minor, and in Rome. He severed
Christianity's ties toJudaism and to Jewish nationalism. And he laid down a policy of evading the social
and political demands of Roman society. Converts
were recruited largely from the metropolitan proletariat, with an occasional member of the middle
classes - a retired non-commissioned officer, a
freedman, or the like. By A.D. Ioo, the new faith,
while largely centred in the big cities, had spread all
over the East to small towns and even to villages.2
Within the congregations a loose organization
gradually developed. Business and other practical
matters were taken care of by a group of volunteer
administrators, the overseers (episkopoi, bishops),
and stewards (diakonoi, deacons). Religious inspiration came from migrating preachers, first from the
Disciples, later from 'apostles' and 'prophets'.
Ritual was also loosely organized, even at the beginning of the second century. The congregation would
assemble at sunrise on Sunday for prayer, and
towards evening for a meal (agape) - recalling the

24

A.D.

PART ONE: CHRISTIAN BUILDING PRIOR TO CONSTANTINE

150-250. 25
I

Jewish meal on the Eve of the Sabbath. This evening

ritual opened with a blessing over the breaking of the
bread and ended with a second blessing over a cup of
wine. Prayers were offered either during the meal or
after, hymns were sung, and at times a spiritual
discourse evolved. A 'prophet', if present, would
deliver a sermon or would speak ecstatically in
tongues.J
These early believers had neither the means, the
organization, nor the slightest interest in evolving an
ecclesiastical architecture. They met in whatever
place suited the occasiOn. To win proselytes, a group
might assemble in a Jewish place of worship - in
Jerusalem the Temple precinct, elsewhere a synagogue. But with the widening gap between old and
new believers, such mission meetings became
increasingly difficult.4 Christians might assemble at
a street corner, as did St Paul and his listeners in the
market place at Athens. Rarely would they be able to
hire a public hall, as did the congregation at Ephesus
at the time ofSt Paul's visit.S
In contrast to such mission meetings - which
ceased with the death of the Disciples - regular
gatherings would of necessity be held in private, in
the house of one or the other of the brethren,
'breaking the bread from house to house'. 6Since the
core of the service was a meal, the given place of the
meeting would be the dining-room. And as the
congregations were recruited by and large from the
lower and middle classes, their houses would have
been typical cheap houses. Such houses are known
to us, if not from the first and second centuries, at
least from the fourth and fifth. In the Eastern
provinces, they were apparently one-family buildings up to four storeys high. The dining-room on top
was the only large room, and often opened on a
terrace. This is the upper floor, the anageion or
hyperOon frequently mentioned in the Acts,7 the
room 'high up, open to the light', of which Tertullian
still speaks after A.D. 200. s The furnishings would
simply consist of a table and three surrounding
couches, from which the dining-room takes its name
ln Latinized Greek- the triclinium. The main couch
opposite the entrance was presumably reserved for

the elder, the host, and the speaker as honoured

guest. The congregation might crowd the room,
including the window sills, so that at Troas - from
the heat of the many lamps and the length of the
sermon- a young man fell from the fourth floor (the
tristego11), only to be resurrected by the preacher, St
Paul.9 In Rome, where tenement houses with
horizontal apartments were the rule, not necessarily
including a dining-room, any large chamber may
have served for these gatherings.IO No other rooms
would have been required by the congregations.
Postula11ts, desiring to be converted, and catechumms,
converts not yet baptized, were not admitted to
'breaking the bread', and may have left the room
before that climax of the meeting. Baptism, originally administered only in flowing water, was performed in standing water, either warm or cold, as
early as the beginning of the second century; it took
place presumably at a fountain or well in the
courtyard of the house, in a bathroom, or in a small,
privately owned public bath.tt
Until A.D. 200, then, a Christian architecture did
not and could not exist. Only the state religion
erected temples in the tradition of Greek and
Roman architecture. The saviour religions, depending on the specific form of their ritual and the
finances of their congregation, built oratories above
or below ground, from the simplest to the most
lavish but always on a small scale. Christian congregations prior to 200 were limited to the realm of
domestic architecture, and further, to inconspicuous dwellings of the lower classes. This limitation, and particularly the evasion of the architec_ture of official worship, is something that becomes
decisive for the early development of Christian
architecture.

A.D.

150-250

The position and outlook of Christianity changed

radically after the middle of the second century. By
250, Asia Minor was sixty per c.ent Christian. The
congregation in Rome numbered thirty to fifty
thousand. North Mrica counted hundreds of small-

town congregations.12 Through the continuous controversies with paganS and Jews as 'yell as among its
own members, dogma became more clearly defined.
The last years of the second and the first half of the
third century saw the first great Church fathers:
T ertullian . and Cyprian in Africa, Hippolytus in
Rome, Clemens and Origen in Alexandria. Men of
wealth and rank rose to leadership: Calixtus, a
freedman and wealthy banker, held the office of
deacon in Rome, then that of bishop from 217 to
222. By 230, the congregations counted among their
members high civil servants and courtiers;
Christians, so says Tertullian, have penetrated town
councils, the palace, the senate, the forum; and
bishops, so says another Church father, had become
stewards of the Emperors.tJ The congreg;tions had
become increasingly organized and expanded their
activities of divine worship and care of souls to
include charity, the tending of cemeteries, the
administration of property, and instruction classes
for proselytes. Bishops, elders (presbyters), and
deacons grew into the hierarchy of a professional
ordained clergy, each degree entrusted with different spiritual and administrative functions. In
Rome, Bishop Dionysius (259-68) established a
parochial organization and a similar set-up prevailed
throughout the Empire, one bishop presiding over
the Christians in each town. As early as 220, the
bishops of the metropolitan centres - Rome, Carthage, Alexandria, Ephesus, and possibly Antiochhad gained actual leadership in their respective
provinces.
The new strength of Christianity was bound to
lead to conflicts ,vith the State. 14 Christianity found
it increasingly impossible to evade the demands and
avoid the challenges of officialdom. As early as the
second century, the self-segregation of the
Christians and their voluntary exclusion from official worship and government service had led to
suspicion and to sporadic po~oms. By and large,
however, the authorities were inclined to consider
the Christians harmless sectarians. Persecutions
remained localized and far apart: in Rome in 64, at
Smyrna in II7, at Lyons in 177. But by 250 the

situation had changed. The Christian segment of

th~ population had grown large and influential.
Their refusal to participate in sacrifice, prayer, and
public rejoicing for the welfare and success of the
Emperor's Divine Majesty forced the government
into action. Millions of citizens were obviously subversive, refused to take an oath on the Emperor's
godhead, could not be called up for military and civil
service, and, indeed, began to claim future secular
and political power. Closing both eyes would not do.
Two bloody general persecutions, in 250 and 2576o, led to the arrest and execution of Christian
leaders in Carthage, Alexandria, and Rome, and to
the enforcement of sacrifice, the prohibition of
assembly by Christian congregations, and the confiscation of Christian property. But the organization
of the Church was too strongly built, and the trust of
the faithful in ultimate salvation too strong. The
Emperor Gallienus ended the persecution in 26o
and restored to the Churches their property, their
buildings of worship and cemeteries, and their right
of assembly ,Is
The holding of property by Christian communities both before and after the persecutions, then, is
assured. The legal basis for such holdings remains a
moot question. Possibly the congregations were
incorporated as funeral associations and held property under that title. More likely, they purchased and
held property by pro:tcy, through a member of the
congregation or the bishop. All in all, except for
short times of persecution, Christianity was
tolerated by Roman practice, if not by law. The large
Christian congregations of the Empire, by 250,
certainly did not live in hiding. They held services,
proselytized, baptized, buried their dead, assisted
their needy - and to these ends owned property,
either legally or by sufferance.t6
The structures wanted by the congregation were
to serve two purposes: the spiritual needs and social
welfare ofthe living and the cult of the dead. Outside
the cities, cemeteries had to be established and
maintained where the dead could rest undefiled by
neighbouring pagans, where tombs of martyrs were
marked by monuments, and where the living could

A.D.

26 PART ONE: CHRISTIAN BUILDING PRIOR TO CONSTANTINE

assemble in appropriate structures for memorial

services and funeral banquets; Within the cities,
congregations needed buildings suitable for assembly of the fai~ful, administration of the community,
and distribution of charities. Small congregations
might well continue to meei: in private houses;
leaders oflarge communities too would revert to this
practice in times of persecution, or else assemble in
the Jess conspicuous buildings on cemeteries. This
latter apparently occurred in 250 when the Roman
bishop and his deacons were arrested 'on the
cemetery of Callixtus'. But as a rule, from the early
third century, congregations must have held structures of their own for their manifold needs - structures within the local tradition of domestic building
in the Raman-hellenistic world, yet adapted to the
new needs of the Christian congregations.
These needs, -both religious and social, had
expanded rapidly. A rich and clear liturgy had
evolved by A.D. 200. The common meal had been
relegated to rare occasions: meals offered to the
poor (agapaz), or funeral and memorial banquets
(refrigeria) held in cemeteries near sites hallowed by
martyrs. The regular service consisted of two parts.
The first was attended by both the faithful and
catechumens and comprised scriptural readings,
sermon, and common prayer (Mass of the
Catechumens). The second part (Mass of the Faithful) was reserved for fully-fledged members in good
standing. It consisted of three parts: the procession
of the faithful bringing offerings for the Sacrifice
and contributions for the maintenance of the poor
and the church; the Sacrifice proper- the Eucharist;
and the communion.l7 The assembly room, no
longer a dining-room, had to be large, easily accessible, and divided between clergy and laymen. IS The
bishop, flanked by his presbyters, would preside
over the assembly from a platform (tribunal, solium),
seated in an armchair like a Roman magistrate. The
congregation was seated outside this presbytery,
supervised by the deacons and arranged in a set
orqer. A Syrian church order of c. 250 places children in front, then men, and finally women. In
Rome, men apparently occupied one side of the

rooml women the other, as continued to be the

custoin in later times.l9 The furniture was simple,
presumably wooden and movable: the bishop's
chair, a table (mensa) for the Eucharist, and a second
table for the offerings (the first table within or in
front of the presbytery, the second to one side). A
low wooden railing might separate the clergy from
the laymen, and this railing, or another, was used to
enclose the altar. An anteroom (vestibulum) was
needed for catechumens and penitents who, dismissed after the first part of the Mass, were to hear, but
not see, the Mass of the FaithfuJ.zo Baptism had also_
evolved an elaborate liturgy, preceded by anointment and followed by confirmation, requiring both
a baptistery and a confirmation room (consignaton"um).21 All these rooms, varying in size, had
to communicate with each other and allow for a
smooth sequence of baptism, confirmation, and
regular assembly. Moreover, auxiliary chambers had
to be provided: classrooms for instruction of
neophytes; a dining-room for celebration of agapai; a
vestry in \Vhich to store altar vessels; and, at times, a
library as well. The charities of the Church required
the storage, distribution, and administration of food
and clothing. Offices and living quarters were
needed for the clergy, their families, and the clerical
staff. These manifold ends could not be met either
by a private house, taken over Unchanged, or by an
apartment temporarily at the disposal of the congregation. They could be met only by a regular meeting
house, owned by the congregation in practice, if not
in fact. Such a structure would be called a domus
ecclesiae, an oikos ekklisias, or, in the local parlance of
Rome, a titulus;zz community centre or meeting
house best renders the meaning of the various terms.
Orice purchased, the structure would as a rule have
to be altered to fit the congregation's needs.
Occasionally community houses may even have
been built ex n(!Vo. But all known community houses
remain bound in plan and design to the tradition of
utilitarian domestic architecture, as well as subject
to the regional .variations of third-century building
within the Roman Empire. Christianity thought of
its practical needs along purely utilitarian and

150-250. 27

r. Dura-Europos (Qalat es Siilihiye),

private lines. It shied away from the official sphere
and from official a,nd religious architecture, which . Christian community house, shortly after
200 and t. 230. Isometric view
was nearly all loaded with pagan connotations in
third-century Rome. TempleS were dedicated to the
gods of the State; sanctuaries were sacred to pagan
saviour gods; and public assembly halls were linke!i
to the worship of the Emperor or the Welfare of the
State. 'We have no temples, we have no altars', says
J\ilinucius Felix. 23 Inconspicuousness was both
prudent and ideologically desirable for Christianity,
and could be best achieved behind the fat;ade of
domestic middle-cl~ss architecture.24
Christian community houses of this description,
formerly known only dimly from literary evidence,
have come to light during the last forty years. None
among those known dates from after 400, none from
prior to 230. The oldest known building stood at
Dura-Europos (Qalat es Salihiye), near the eastern
border of the Empire, and is representative of the
position and requirements of a small-town congregation in hellenized-Mesopotamian surroundings.
The community houses found in Rome, tenements
remodelled in the third and fourth centuries for use
by Christian congregations, are typical of the needs
ISM
and Position of the large Christian community in the
with the adjoining south-west room. The enlarged
capital of the Empire.
The meeting house at Dura-Europos is securely
room- 5 by 13 m. (16! by 43ft) -would have seated
dated [1 ]. It was destroyed with the neighbouring
a congregation of fifty or sixty. A dais for the bishop
occupied the short east wall. Near by, a door led into
Jewish synagogue and other houses when the town
wall was reinforced in 257.25 When built on the edge
a small room with wall niches which was apparendy
a vestry. Large doors, taken over from the older
of the town, it was an ordinary town dwelling of the
customary peristyle type: a courtyard, entered from
building, opened into the courtyard and into a goodan alley through a narrow passage, was surrounded
sized room- 4 by 7 m. (13 by 23 ft)- in the west
on. three sides by rooms of varying sizes, and on the
wing. This room, offering- space for roughly thirty,
would have been an ideal place for the catechumens
fourth side by a portico; into the fresh plaster of one
to hear but not see the Mass of the Faithful, to
of the rooms a bored w~rkman scratched the year:
receive instruction, and to prepare themselves for
A.D. 231/z. Whether or not this house was used as
baptism. Its three doors open into the courtyard, the
such by the Christian-congregation for its assemblies
meeting hall, and into a smaller rectangular bapis uncertain. But the structure was certainly i~ the
tistery to the north. A tub surmounted by a canopy
hands of the congregation between 240 and. 250. At
leans against the west wall of the baptistery; and the
that time it underwent alterations designed to adapt
murals centre on the ideas of original sin, salvation,
it better to its functions as a community house. The
divan in the south wing - the reception room, and resurrection - ideas closely linked in Early
Christian thought to the symbolism of baptism.
surrounded On three sides by benches- was merged

'

28 PART ONE: CHRISTIAN BUILDING PRIOR TO CONSTANTH_jE

Presumably community houses were similarly the greater wealth and larger size of the congregaadapted from private residences in small towns all : tions, the metropolitan surroundings, and the tradiover the Empire.26 The minutes of a confiscation of tion of large-city domestic architecture. But like
Christian property in a North African country town
their country cousins, the domus ecc/esiae in th~
in 303 vividly reflect the plan of such a domus ecclesiae metropolitan centres of the Empire were rci.oted in
and the function of its several rooms. Moving domestic architecture and would preserve their
through the house, the police impound chalices,
unobtrusive presence among the ordinary houses of
lamps, an~ chandeliers in the meeting room; wear- a large city. Metropolitan architecture, by the early
ing-apparel for the poor in a store room; bookcases third century, had indeed developed two distinct
and chests in the library; chests and large jugs in a types, each with a number of variations. The privat~
dining-room.27 Nor were private residences only residences of the wealthy, the Mmus, followed the
assimilated to Christian meeting houses. In Dura plan of the old hellenistic or ltalo-hellenistic
itself, but a few blocks from the Christian building, peristyle house. Far more numerous were th~ buildthe remnants of a Jewish community centre prove ings designed for the teeming masses of the urban
that around 200 the Jews also housed their meeting population: tenement houses of uP to five or more
room an~ needed annexes in a structure much like storeys - either tower-like, as in Alexandria, the
an ordinary Dura house: a small courtyard enclosed apartments heaped on top of each other, or forming
by smaller and larger rooms, among the larger the large blocks (insulae), as in Rome and Ostia, with
synagogue, among the smaller a sacristy and two shops, small thennae, or Warehouses at street level
divans, of which one possibly served as a dining- and numerous apartments on each of the upper
room and the other as a court room.2s This building floors. 29 Crowded along narrow, shady, smelly
was replaced in 245 by a new community centre in streets busding with life and noise, these tenements
which the rooms were larger, the synagogue pre- must have looked very much like their late
ceded by a regular forecourt and lavishly decorated descendants in present-day Rome or Naples.
with wall paintings- the oldest surviving Old TestaThe Christian communities of Rome installed
ment cycle. But all this remained hidden behind their domus ecclesiae in just such tenements. Their
windowless walls. Seen from the street, both the resemblance to ordinary tenements would have
Jewish community centres of about 200 and 245 and made these tituli as hard to identifY as the meeting
the Christian domus ecclesiae were indistinguishable rooms of contemporary sects installed in the tenfrom any other house in the neighbourhood. This ements of New York's Harlem or London's East
was only natural. Both congregations were small End. The term titulus is a legal one, derived from the
minorities, and although the environment was not marble slab which bore the owner's name and
necessarily hostile, there was no reason to call atten- established his tide to a property. By the early fourth
tion to an alien element through a conspicuously century the parish organization of Rome rested on
different structure. Nor is it surprising that both twenty-five tituli, known under such names as titu/us
congregations installed their community centres in C/ementis, titulus Praxedis, titU/us Byzantis, and the
the district near the city wall, traditi~nally the like. These tituli exist to this day in name and law,
quarter of the poor. Financial limitations, the social with 'saint' prefixed to the owner's name, or with the
background Of their membership, and the natural originaltitu/us name replaced by that of a saint; and
desire to be inconspicuous would have made them each titulus is assigned to one of the cardinals of the
prefer such a location.
Roman Church as his title church. Most of these
Community houses in the large cities of the tituli are now regular church buildings, laid out from
Empire- whether Jewish or Christian- would differ the fourth to the ninth centuries, and often remodfrom those in country towns for a number of reasons: elled later. However, incorporated into their Walls or

A.D. 150-250. 29

preserved below their floors are, almost without floor. The hypothesis that the building served as a
exception, the remnants oflarge tenement houses or .Christian community house as early as the third
private thermae d3.ting from the second or third century thus becomes admissible. In the last third of
centuries, or at least frqm the period before Con- the fourth century, a confessio, sheltering relics of
stantine. Hence it becomes very likely that the pre- martyrs, was inserted on a mezzanine landing of the
Constantinian structures were used as Mm us ecclesiae staircase and marked the position of the altar near
until replaced much later by regular church build- the east wall in the large hall above. The structure
ings which retained the original names of titulus survived until replaced after 400 by the present
basilica.3 1
C/ementis, and so fordi.Jo
The situation may have been similar in other
It is tempting to assume that a large number of
these pre-Constantinian structures incorporated Roman tituli. At S. Clemente, a third-century tenement with shops and what may have been a factory
into present-day tide churches were Christian community centres as ea~ly as the third century. But such hall on the ground floor gave way in the late fourth
generalization is hazardous, since no titu/us can yet century to a basilica [132]. At the same time, a
be traced beyond the early fourth century by second-century thermae hall was remodelled into
the basilica ofS. Pudenziana.32 Conclusive proof is
documentary evidence. Concomitantly, the mere
presence of a pre-Constantinian tenement lacking as to the previous use of these structures
by Christian congregations, but the likelihood is
incorporated into a fourth-century or later title
church constitutes no proof that the structure was a undeniable. Notwithstanding uncertainty in specific
domus ecclesiae prior to Constantine. Such proof cases, then, the domus ecclesiae of third-century
Rome appear to have been installed in tenement
e:ffi;ts only where the building was remodelled for
Christian use in pre-Constantinian times, either houses and other utilitarian structures, only slighdy
adapted, along purely practiCal lines, to their new
structurally or in decoration. Even where a titulus
was installed in a pre-Constantinian structure as late function.
Correspondingly, the funeral structures of the
as the fourth century, however, this use of a tenement or a thermae building is presumably a survival early-third-century Christian congregations were
of earlier times when Christian architecture was still utilitarian in design, evolved from Roman funeral
architecture of th~ simplest kind. Christian funeral
fully rooted in domestic architecture.
The structure incorporated into the early-fifth- ritual, like pagan, required both a burial place and a
century church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo offers an place for memorial services. The services included a
example of a second-century tenement house of funeral banquet at which family and friends assembled round the tomb, feasting and pouring libations
customary type, with shops on the ground floor and
apartments above, which was merged with a small into the grave through an opening, the cataract. The
standard architectural elements were a clearly idenne~ghbouring thermiie, probably shortly before 250.
tified tomb, occasionally provided with a table top,
Presumably as early as 250, the ground floor and for the banquet either a tomb chamber with
obviously no longer used for shops -was decorated
with murals including Christian subjects. The mourners' benches or couches, or a separate room.
Christian custom required slight modifications of
building at that time must have served as the titulus
Byzantis, as it appears in documents. However, the Roman traditions, which (avoured burial in family
groups (including slaves and freedmen) regardless
evidence furnished by the distribution of windows
over the third-century fac;ade, and the strengthening of personal religious belief. Christian usage,' at least
by A.D. 200, required burial of the faithful unconof ground-floor walls and the construction of a
taminated by pagan neighbours. Burial near the
monumental staircase (both in the third century),
mausoleum of a pagan patron became gradually
suggest the existence of a large hall on the upper

JI
30 PART ONE: CHRISTIAN BUILDING PRIOR TO CONSTANTfNE

(arenan"um). Two, three, or even four storeys are

impossible. Moreover, Christianity abhorred cremation, which remained standar~ for the poor ifr superimposed and connected by narrow rampS or
stairs. Into the walls are hollowed narrow shelf
Rome- even after the well-to-do had returned around 1 so - to the custom of burial. Hence tombs (locult), sealed with tiles or marble slaOs
inscribed with a name and blessing [2]. Square or
Christians could not use the mass graves of the
Roman lower classes, the columharia crowded with polyianal chambers (cubicula) branch off from the
urns on shelves or in niches along the walls of a corridors. Intended for affluent individuals or
chamber. Finally, <:J.espite the relative wealth of families, their walls were set out with arcosolia, and
Christian congregations, most members were poor niches for lamps; ceilings and Walls were decorated
in the early third century; since fune_ral expenses with frescoes. This archetype is preserved in the
were private, arrangements for burial had to be oldest portions of the Callisto Catacomb in Rome.
simple. And whatever arrangements were to be The first cemetery of the Roman congregation, it
made, the size of the congregations required that was apparently established before 217 by one of the
they be made on a large scale.
great organizers of the Church, Calixtus, and
A solution was found by constructing large enlarged in the course of the third and early fourth
communal cemeteries, either open to the sky or centuries. The same simple gridiron type prevails in
underground. Underground cemeteries - cata- the other early catacombs near Rome. Only with the
increasing deinand for space in the fourth century
com~s - were advantageous in certain cases: if
property values above ground were high, if a terrain was the network of conidors converted into the maze
of soft rock below a thin layer of soil guaranteed low which impresses and frightens the modem visitor.
The plain archetype derives from the pagan group
labour costs, and especially if a previous excavation,
quarry, or cistern offered a starting-point. The rare hypogaeum, which is simplified, regularized, depercoincidence of such conditions limited catacombs to sonalized, and enlarged for the benefit of a sizeable
a few Christian sites in Sicily, North Africa, Naples, congregation. The congregation would pay out of its
and Rome. The beginnings go back to the last ovm funds for the ground and the labour of cutting
quarter of the second and the ~arly third centuries. galleries. The individual, poor as he might be, could
\ But catacombs were enlarged throughout the fourth .at least afford a loculus ofhis ovm. Needless to say, n-o
century and occasionally laid out anew. They went catacomb was ever intended or used for holding
out of use during the later fifth century and early regular services in hiding from persecution. The
sixth century under the impact of political and
idea of Roman Christians, thousands strong by 220,
economic catastrophes with resulting decreases in marching to the catacombs for Sunday services
the labour force and the collapse ofland values.33
unbeknown to the police is preposterous. Moreover,
Regional differences among catacombs are the catacombs were damp, dark, intricate, and the
marked. In Syracuse, broad galleries formed ,a largest cuhiculum would take not even fifty people:
spider's web with narrow branches tightly packed Only memorial services were held in catacombs, and
with floor tombs lfonnae), and with an occasional. if attendance exceeded a bare minimum, even they
tomb niche .(arcosolium) in the wall of a gallery. In and the accompanying funeral banquets had to be
Naples and North Africa, a straight broad gallery held above ground. In times of emergency, small
forms the core of the catacomb, occasionally groups may have occasionally tried to meet for
widened into a plaza on which rock piers support the regular services in a catacomb chamber, but even
ceiling and form a free-standing baldacchino. In then the subsidiary buildings above the catacomb
Rome, narrow galleries form a tight gridiron were preferred.
By and large, however, third-century Christians
scheme, starting frequently with an older hypogaeum group, or a tufa quarry or sandpit preferred to bury their dead in open-air cemeteries
2.

11

il

Rome, Catacomb ofS. Panfilo, third or fourth century. Gallery

32

PART ONE: CHRISTIAN BUILDING PRIOR TO CONSTANTINE

vocabulary of pagan religious architecture- classical

are known _to have existed from about A.D. t6o.
orders and all - enriched the realm of Roman
Later ones dating from the third to the sixth centuiy ' funerary building.
Heroa and the hero cult are the roots from which
have been found all over the Christian world, in
Christian martyria and the martyr cult sprang,
North Africa, Asia Minor, the Balkans, Dalmatia,
apparently as early as the second century. The finds
Rome, Spain, and the Rhineland. Simple graves,
underneath St Peter's in Rome have unearthed what
often topped by funeral banquet tables (mensae),
appears to be the oldest known martyrium. In the
alternated with free-standing sarcophagi. In
midst of a cemetery occupied by lavish monuments
between rose small mausolea (cellae); some have
of well-to-do followers of oriental cults - all dating
survived, transformed into crypts, in some medieval
churches in France.H Funeral banqueting halls of
from c. A.D. I 2o-6o, except for one late-thirdcentury intruder - a small area has survived. It
varying size were at times enclosed buildings; at
other times they were open to the sky; or they were
measures 5 by 7 m. (r6! by 23 ft) and contains a few
mean graves, possibly the remnant of a poor
porticoes bordering the area and sheltering a few
graveyard which preceded the luxury cemetery. The
mensae [5, 6].3 5
Such purely practical layouts gave way to slightly
area is terminated by a wall which oversails one of
the poor graves. From brick stamps, the wall can be
more monumental designs when a structure was
to serve more than a private memorial function: for
roughly dated c. A.D. r6o. Above the grave a niche
was hollowed into the wall, either when built or at
example, the public cult of a martyrium - the grave
least before 200. An aedicula was placed in front of
of a martyr and a witness for Christ and the Faith,
or a place which bore witness through memory of a
the niche, formed by two columns carryiitg a stone
plaque xso m. (5 ft) from the ground [3]. The upper
martyr's sufferlngs or by the Godhead's manifestation. The worship of such sites and the strucpart of the niche continued above the aedicula,
perhaps flanked by half-columns and surmounted
tures built to shelter them are. closely linked to
by a gable.37
pagan antecedents and contemporary pagan
custom.J6
The archaeological evidence tallies with historical
tradition. As early as c. roo, local Christian belief
From time immemorial, pagan antiquity had
divinized its great and occasionally its minor dead.
held that the apostle Peter had suffered death in
An elaborate cult had evolved around mythical
Rome; by 200, his trqpaion, the monument of his
heroes, rulers- from tribal chiefs to hellenistic kings
victory over death and paganism, was venerated on
the Vatican Hill. This is apparently the aedicula now
and Roman emperors- and members of well-to-do
Roman families. The sites linked to their deeds and
unearthed. Invocations scratched into an adjoining
wall leave no doubt that to Christians of the mid
their deaths had been marked by heroa: structures
which fused the function and design of temples and
third and presumably the late second century, this
sanctuaries with those of mausolea. In their simplest
was the shrine of the apostle. By 3 20 the lower part
form such heroa were areas open to the sky, terminof the niche was buried; but its upper part was
ated by a niche sheltered under an aedicula. In more retained, and on it Constantine's architects focused
elaborate form they were enclosed structures: either
the enormous mass of their basilica. To this day, it
rectangular halls, longitudinal or transverse, proforms the centre of veneration in the church of St
vided with apses; or rotundas, domed like the
Peter's below the high altar. -Whether this shrine
heavens, raised on high platforms, and preceded by
covered Peter's grave or merely a cenotaph (a ficcolonnaded deep porticoes. In the course of time,
titious tomb), or whether it simplr commemorated
the distinction between heroa and mausolea became
his martyrdom, are questions the historian of archiobliterated, and by way ofheroa, the panoply of the
tecture may well leave open.JS

A.D.

(areae) rather than in catacombs. Such cemeteries

250-313 '33

3 Rome, St Peter's,
shrine of St Peter,
late second century.
Elevation

A. D. 250-313

Simple martyria abounded after the collapse of

Decius's persecution in 26o, and after that, of
Diocletian's of 303-5. Two chambers inside the
Callisto Catacomb - prepared before 207 for the
common burial of Roman bishops and in use until
314- were joined together by 250 and decorated, if
mOdestly, by two attached columns [4]. Inscriptions
mark the enlarged room, the 'Chapel of the Popes',
as a martyrium, and indeed in the fourth century it
was provided with an altar and chancel screens.J9
Martyria above ground were designed as precincts,
resembling the one at the shrine of St Peter but
along quite simple lines. On the site ofS. Sebastiano
on the Via Appia, a festival commemorating St Peter
.and St Paul was celebrated from A.D. 258. At that
time, an open courtyard was laid out, terminated on
one side by an open loggia- a funeral-banquet hall
(tn'clia) [51 were its walls not covered with invoca-

tions of the Apostles (one dated 260) and with

records of feasts in their honour, the loggia might
be the pergola of an ordinary osteria. Inside the
courtyard, a niche with marble revetment formed
the cult centre.40 A much simpler martyrium precinct was set up at roughly the same time on a
Christian cemetery found below the medieval
cathedral at far-away Bonn [6]- a rectangular bench
under the sky, surrounding two masonry blocks
ris~g over two tombs, one block prepared for offering libations.41
Numerous small martyria precincts have been
found in the cemeteries of Salona on the Dalmatian
coast.42 ThCy 'show half a dozen variants: simple
apses with a bench along their curve, the floor raised
and slighdy projecting so as to cover the martyr's
tomb in front; walled-in square courtyards terminated by an apse and sheltering the graves, both of the
martyrs and others; precincts, their front wall opening in an arcade and centred on a banquet mensa,

34

A.D. 250-313.35

6. Bonn,
memoria, c. 256

l
I
~

0
0

4 Rome, Catacomb ofS. Callisto, Chapel of the Popes, c. 250

fk.

S R?me, S. Sebastiano, tri~lia, c. 258. Reconstruction

lOFT

'"

with the martyr's tomb sheltered by a canopy. At

times the pr~cinct is surrounded by porticoes with
projecting apses - their number multiplies during
Constantine's reign into a maze of apsed chapels. At
Salona-Marusinac an elaborate tomb precinct was
laid out: a long porticoed courtyard, terminated by
an apse and two mausolea projecting sideways.
Superficially the plan recalls a basilica with transept,
and indeed, the structure at Salona has been termed
a 'basilica discoperta' and interpreted as an ancestor
of all church building [143]. 43 Both the precinct's
late date, 426, and the rarity of basilicas with transepts make this thesis untenable. On the contrary,
the plan represents a precinct plan barely

monumentalized beyond, the most practical needs,

an~ old-fashioned by fifth-centhry standards.
Open-air precincts apparently gave way during
the fourth century to more monumental types of
martyria. The Anastasius Mausoleum in Salona,
dated c. 305-10, is an example [qJ]. Others are
found in places as far distant as Pecs iri Hungary and
Alberca in Spain. Alfare sinall two.:stOreyed buildings, rectangular and provided with inter!or apses,
barrel-vaulted and strengthened by exterior buttresses.# At Salona, the underground tomb vault
sheltered the martyr'S body under the apse, the
founders' sarcophagi under the nave. The upper
chamber, also barrel-vaulted, was presumably used
for funeral banquets and -memorial. services. The
type obViously derives from Roman two- and threestoreyed mausolea and heroa, but the placement of
an altar over the tomb of the martyr for memorial
services introduces a new element, important for
the later development of Christian architecture.
Simultaneously, elaborate martyria and banqueting
hallS were built in Rome amidst ope~-air graveyards
above the catacombs. Some were tiiconchs (cellae
trichorae), the centre bay vaulted, the fa~Jade open in
a wide arch or a triple arcade or preceded by a short
nave [7]. The martyr's tomb was either below the
floor or in a chamber of the catacomb.45 Other

1 Rome, Catacomb ofS. Callisto, cella trichora, c. 300(?), as in c. r8so

36

PART ONE: CHRISTIAN BUILDING PRIOR TO CONSTANTINE

martyria were cross-shaped,. the centre square

groin-vaulted, an!! the tomb apparendy hidden
underground in a circular vault enlarged by cross
arms. The martyrium above -the catacomb of St
Praetextatus, perhaps as late as the second half of the
fourth century, was a hexagon structure with low
niches projecting between ~igh buttresses, the
centre room domed and lighted by narrow windows
above the apses.46 Judged by_theirmasonry, all these
buildings would seem to date from the first quarter
of the fourth century; some may be pre-Constantinian.All are closely linked in plan and design to the
tradition of pagan Roman mausolea and heroa of an
elaborate type. In exceptional cases, Christian
martyria of pre-Constantinian date seemingly
absorbed an even more pretentious type of mausoleum, customary in the Eastern provinces: the
tetrapylon, a four-arched vaulted structure, recalling
a canopy such as those rising over the Emperor's
throne. The connotations are significant to the placement of such a tetrapylon over the grave ofStJohn
the Evangelist at Ephesus perhaps as early as 300.47
Monumental forms seem to have penetrated more
easily into Christian funerary architecture than into
other fields of Christian building. Pagan funeral

buildin$ was by and large in the private domain and

therefore lacked the religious overtones inherent in
all monumental public architecture. It had absorbed
from this latter the vocabulary and often the plan,
but it was considered neutral and not truly religious
architecture. Hence the forms of classical architecture could easily slip into Christian funerary building- whether private mausolea, banqueting halls, or
martyria - when deprived of their religious and
therefore unacceptable connotations.
On the other hand, the buildings where congregations metforregularservices and for the administra- .
tion of their affairs clung much longer to the concepts of purely utilitarian architecture. Houses,
legally or practically in private hands, were used for
services even in the early fourth century in North
Africa. In Rome cWmus ecclesitU were purchased and
remodelled far into the fourth century. 48 Occasionally, however, in the last decades of the third and the
first years of the fourth century, a bishop and his
congregation felt dissatisfied with the unobtrusive,
utilitarian character of the community centres.
Against the strong opposition of his brethren, as
early as z6 5 the bishop of Antioch, Paul of
Samosate, claimed more showy quarters and the

.<

j
!'

8. Rome, S. Crisogono,
first church,
early fourth century(?).
Reconstruction

30FT
!OM

A.D.250-313 '37

appurtenances, both architectural and ceremonial, side and far below the twelfth-century basilica. It
of a Roman ranking magistrate: a 'lofty throne' atop was rectangular, aisleless, truss-roofed, and modest,
a dais, an audience chamber, aDd the performance its right flank possibly skirting a portico and a
of acclamations upon entering the meeting room for courtyard [8]. The brickwork suggests a date very
services.49 Dais, throne, and chambers could have
early in the fourth century. At the same time, the size
been installed, no doubt, in a community house of of the structure, 1550 by 27 m. (51 bySg ft), and the
three-arched opening in the fa<;ade proclaim its
the old type. Complaints were raised by pagan
opponents against what were felt to be pretentious public and to some extent monumental character.s2
Christian meeting places, such as the one in The even more impressiveS. Sebastiano on the Via
Nicomedia (lzmit), 'high up amidst large buildings'.
Appia may have been laid out just prior to ConstanHowever, this structure might still have been an oldtine's occupation of Rome in 312 [zo).53 Yet while
fashioned cWmus ecclesitU.so On the other hand, the such structures have departed from the pseudodomestic, modest utilitarianism of previous
contemporary accusation levelled against the
Christians of erecting 'huge buildings thus imitating Christian building, they are still far from the conthe structures of temples' can refer only to a meeting cepts of Raman-hellenistic monumental architechall of public appearance. 51 The walls of at least one
ture. Not before Constantine are Christian concepts
pre-Constantinian Christian hall may have survived expressed in the language of the official architecture
of Late Antiquity.
in Rome in the first church ofS. Crisogono, along-