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Date: begun 319 CE
Location: Rome, Italy
Culture/Style: Early Christian
Terms: Transept, apse, aisle, nave, narthex, atrium, basilica
St. Peter's, built under Constantine, heavily resembled Roman basilicas in its longitudinal plan and elevation to encourage people to congregate in familiar settings. The church was built over the grave of St. Peter, the founder of Christianity Date: ca. 526 - 547
Location: Ravenna, Italy
Culture/Style: Early Byzantine
Terms: Narthex, nave, apse, aisle, domed octagon
San Vitale is centrally planned, like Justinian's churches in Constantinople. The middle features a nave covered by a domed octagon. A cross-vaulted choir, area where clergy sit, precedes the apse, allowing axial stability. However, the narthex has off-axis placement. In the apse vault, youthful Christ sits on the orb of the world at the time of second coming, extending the gold martyr's wreath to Saint Vitalis Date: ca. 532 - 537
Location: Istanbul, Turkey (Constantinople)
Artists: Anthems of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus
Culture/Style: Early Byzantine
Terms: half-domes, apse, aisle, nave, dome narthex, pendentives, squinches
Patron: Justinian
Hagia Sophia is a domed basilica with a great dome, two half-domes at east/west, and smaller half-domes surmounting columned exedrae. The architects fused the vertically oriented central-plan building and longitudinally oriented basilica; the dome of the Hagia Sophia is often compared to the Pantheon, seeming to ride on a halo of light. 