{Change of direction in early Christian churches}[2nd March 1991]

[Redbook8:300][19910302:1808d]{Change of direction in early Christian churches}[2nd March 1991]

19910302.1808

[continued]

‘Those [first Christian basilicas, in Rome]* were, in most cases, halls with five longitudinal aisles, the central one raised and lit directly by windows piercing the high walls. A semicircular protrusion of the wall, or apse, on the short side opposite the entrance, first on the west side but later on the east side,** was covered over with a half-dome vault, while the so-called hall itself usually had a wooden frame roof.’

***

‘The central-plan [Church] building, round, polygonal,**** or cruciform in design, gathered considerable momentum in the West as well as in the East in the course of the 4^th and 5^th centuries.’

#

*[Square brackets per ms, implying insertion]

**(my emphasis)

*** – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 13:] 972

****(often octagonal)

# – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 13:] 973

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