{Chaos* in the Cathedral [continued (5)]}[5th March 1991]

[Redbook8:305][19910305:2240e]{Chaos* in the Cathedral [continued (5)]}[5th March 1991]

19910305.2240

[continued]

‘The vaulted basilica plan, exemplified by the church of Everuk, was first used throughout most of Armenia (5^th and 6^th centuries) but was abandoned fairly soon in favour of a centralised plan, crowned by a dome with a conical roof. This type of church, a modification of Byzantine central-plan, round-domed churches, may already have been built in Armenia by the 5^th century, as evidenced in the foundations of the church at Echmiadzin; from the 6^th century on, it became the predominant form. The monuments of the first period display imaginative variations of the basic, centralised scheme: different adaptations of a square buttressed by niches (St. Gayane, Mren [sic]), trefoils (church of Thalin), quatrefoils (church of Zvarthnots), hexagons, octagons, or other polygonal types. The complexities of the inner construction contrast with the massive simplicity of the exterior; the niches, the subsidiary chambers, and even the main apse are often hidden in the thickness of the walls, the uniform surfaces of which are often broken up by decorative arcades and by triangular slits or recesses marking the location of the inner divisions.’

**

*[See [Redbook8:302-306][19910305:2240]{Chaos* in the Cathedral}[5th March 1991], fn=*]

**– ibid, [Encyclopaedia Britannica 13:981]

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