In this book, a distinguished team of authors explores the way space, place, architecture, and ritual interact to construct sacred experience in the historical cultures of the eastern Mediterranean. Essays address fundamental issues and features that enable buildings to perform as spiritually transformative spaces in ancient Greek, Roman, Jewish, early Christian, and Byzantine civilizations. Collectively they demonstrate the multiple ways in which works of architecture and their settings were active agents in the ritual process. Architecture did not merely host events; rather, it magnified and elevated them, interacting with rituals facilitating the construction of ceremony. This book examines comparatively the ways in which ideas and situations generated by the interaction of place, built environment, ritual action, and memory contributed to the cultural formulation of the sacred experience in different religious faiths.

This volume covers some of the finest landscape and architecture in southern England, much of it set within the South Downs National Park. The county's small towns and villages feature a pleasing mix of stone, timber, and brick houses of every period. Among numerous atmospheric country houses are the Tudor ruins of Cowdray, the Elizabethan mansion at Parham, and the French-inspired Petworth in its great park, famously captured in Turner's paintings. On the grandest scale is the mighty Arundel Castle, seat of the Duke of Norfolk, while Chichester, the only city in West Sussex, boasts one of the country's most important 12th-century cathedrals. Among many major ecclesiastical and educational establishments built in the 19th century, none is more impressive than Lancing College set high above the coast. New research accompanies 130 specially commissioned color photographs in this authoritative and expert guide.

The Pantheon is one of the most important architectural monuments of all time. Thought to have been built by Emperor Hadrian in approximately 125 AD on the site of an earlier, Agrippan-era monument, it brilliantly displays the spatial pyrotechnics emblematic of Roman architecture and engineering. The Pantheon gives an up-to-date account of recent research on the best preserved building in the corpus of ancient Roman architecture from the time of its construction to the twenty-first century. Each chapter addresses a specific fundamental issue or period pertaining to the building; together, the essays in this volume shed light on all aspects of the Pantheon's creation, and establish the importance of the history of the building to an understanding of its ancient fabric and heritage, its present state, and its special role in the survival and evolution of ancient architecture in modern Rome.

Aspects of Georgia's unique history can only be told through its extant rural churches. As the Georgia backcountry rapidly expanded in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the churches erected on this newly parceled land became the center of community life. These early structures ranged from primitive outbuildings to those with more elaborate designs and were often constructed with local, hand-hewn materials to serve the residents who lived nearby. From these rural communities sprang the villages, towns, counties, and cities that informed the way Georgia was organized and governed and that continue to influence the way we live today. Historic Rural Churches of Georgia presents forty-seven early houses of worship from all areas of the state. Nearly three hundred stunning color photographs capture the simple elegance of these sanctuaries and their surrounding grounds and cemeteries. Of the historic churches that have survived, many are now in various states of distress and neglect and require restoration to ensure that they will continue to stand. This book is a project of the Historic Rural Churches of Georgia organization, whose mission is the preservation of historic rural churches across the state and the documentation of their history since their founding. If proper care is taken, these endangered and important landmarks can continue to represent the state's earliest examples of rural sacred architecture and the communities and traditions they housed.

When Greyfriars Graveyard opened in Edinburgh in the sixteenth century, built on the site of a Franciscan monastery on the edge of the Old Town below the castle, it became Edinburgh's most important burial site. Over the centuries many of Edinburgh's leading figures have been buried at Greyfriars, alongside many more ordinary folk, and it is home to a spectacular collection of post-Reformation monuments. In this book local historian Charlotte Golledge takes the reader on a tour around Greyfriars Graveyard to reveal the history of the cemetery, from when James I granted the land as a monastery to the present day. She explores the huge variety of its monuments and gravestones and explains the symbolism behind the stones and carvings and how the styles changed over the years. Through this she paints a remarkable picture of life and death in Edinburgh over the centuries, which will appeal to both residents and visitors to the Scottish capital.

How do we understand religious spaces? What is their role or function within specific religious traditions or with respect to religious experience? This handbook brings together thirty-three essays addressing these questions using a range of methods and approaches to examine specific spaces or types of spaces around the world and across time. The authors here represent and draw upon many disciplines: religious studies and religion, anthropology, archaeology, architectural history and architecture, cultural and religious history, sociology, geography, gender and women's studies and others. Their essays are snapshots, each offering a specific way to think about the religious space(s) under consideration: Roman shrines, Jewish synagogues, Christian churches, Muslim and Catholic shrines, indigenous spaces in Central America and East Africa, cemeteries, memorials, and more. Some overarching principles emerge from these snapshots. The authors demonstrate that religious spaces are simultaneously individual and collective, personal and social; that they are influenced by culture, tradition, and immediate circumstances; and that they participate in various relationships of power. These essays demonstrate that religious spaces do not simply provide a convenient background for religious action but are also constituent of religious meaning and religious experience; they play an active role in creating, expressing, broadcasting, maintaining, and transforming religious meanings and religious experiences. By learning how religious spaces function, readers of this collection will gain a deeper understanding of religious life and religions themselves.

The Temple of Artemis at Sardis, one of the largest Greek temples in the world, is documented in detail in this lavishly illustrated two-volume monograph by architectural historian Fikret K. Yegul. Begun in the century after the death of Alexander the Great, this delightful and complex building has been admired by travelers, depicted by artists and architects, and studied by scholars for hundreds of years. Yegul provides a wide-ranging overview of the building, treating such topics as early travelers, excavation history, inscriptions, construction techniques, the colossal Roman imperial portraits from the temple cella, religion and cult, and comparisons to other temples and buildings throughout Asia Minor. Yegul's block-by-block description of the extant elements of the building, accompanied by hundreds of drawings and photographs, elucidates the two primary phases in the temple's design and construction, which date to the Hellenistic and the Roman imperial periods. All elements of the building are illustrated in their recently conserved state, with centuries-old discoloration now removed to reveal the original marble. The text volume is accompanied by a series of twenty-four foldout plates with detailed state plans and elevations of the temple.

Suffolk is a county renowned for the beauty of its many parish churches, but for the average visitor the physical language in which they speak, that of stained glass, engraved fonts, and hammer-beamed roofs, is bewildering. Now available in an updated, single volume, the Guide to Suffolk Churches provides a way into this fascinating world, its architecture and history. From bells to pulpits to centuries-old graffiti found in window sills, each church unfolds from sealed tome to open book in Mortlock's hands. Accompanying the entries there is an extensive glossary/index and two useful appendices. From carvings of woodwoses to weeping chancels, the meaning of idiosyncracies and uniformities alike across the county are laid out in clear, engaging prose. New photographs, line drawings, and a detailed map ensure that neither the greatest of artefacts nor the smallest of churches can be accidentally overlooked.Written in a voice as knowledgeable as it is enthusiastic about Suffolk and its churches, the guide is incomparable in both the thoroughness and charm with which it unlocks more than one thousand years of history across the county's hundreds of churches. There is no visit to any parish church in Suffolk, no matter how well informed the visitor, that would not be more enjoyable and informative for having Mortlock along. About the author: D.P. Mortlock is Librarian to Viscount Coke at Holkham and was, for 20 years, County Librarian of Norfolk. He is a Fellow of the Library Association and served as an officer in the Indian Army from 1945-7. His recent books include a new edition of 'The Guide to Norfolk Churches', also published by The Lutterworth Press, 'Aristocratic Splendour: Money and the World of Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester' (Sutton Publishing), and 'Holkham Library: A History and Description' (Roxburghe Club).

This is the third in a series of four volumes that are intended to present a complete Corpus of all the church buildings, of both the Western and the Oriental rites, built, rebuilt or simply in use in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem between the capture of Jerusalem by the First Crusade in 1099 and the loss of Acre in 1291. This volume deals exclusively with Jerusalem, the capital of the Kingdom from 1099 to 1187, leaving the churches of Acre and Tyre to be covered in the fourth and final volume. The Corpus will be an indispensable work of reference to all those concerned with the medieval topography and archaeology of the Holy Land, with the history of the church in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, with medieval pilgrimage to the Holy Places, and with the art and architecture of the Latin East.

The historic county of Yorkshire is the largest county in England, with 157 Grade I listed churches alone in the whole region. This book will cover a selection of churches throughout the southern half of Yorkshire, both well-known and those waiting to be discovered by a wider audience, showing a wide range of styles through the centuries. It covers a huge range of places and landscapes, and its churches reflect this variety, as well as representing the history of this section of Yorkshire. Some of the medieval churches reflect the wealth of their local area at the time, often from trade or monasteries nearby, or the importance of the local town or city, but others served more remote communities and still stand out in the landscape today. Later centuries also made their mark on Yorkshire churches, both in their structures and furnishings, from Georgian simplicity to often spectacular Victorian and twentieth-century architecture in the county’s industrialised towns and cities. In Churches of Southern Yorkshire, author David Paul explores a cross-section of historical churches throughout the county, both the well known and those waiting to be discovered by a wider audience. This fascinating picture of an important part of southern Yorkshire’s history will be of interest to all those who live in or are visiting this splendid county in England.

This book explores the intersection between two key developments of the fourth through seventh centuries CE: the construction of monumental churches and the veneration of saints. While Christian sacred topography is usually interpreted in narrowly religious terms as points of contact with holy places and people, this book considers church buildings as spatial environments in which a range of social 'work' happened. It draws on approaches developed in the fields of anthropology, ritual studies, and social geography to examine, for example, how church buildings facilitated commemoration of the community's dead, establishment of a shared historical past, and communication with the divine. Surveying evidence for the introduction of saints into liturgical performance and the architectural and decorative programs of churches, this analysis explains how saints helped to bolster the boundaries of church space, reinforce local social and religious hierarchies, and negotiate the community's place within larger regional and cosmic networks.

The county of Cheshire has a rich and varied past which is reflected in its historic churches. In Churches of Cheshire , author David Paul explores a selection of the most interesting churches across the whole of the county. The buildings range from a church located in the heart of the city of Chester to market towns, villages and remote locations, and represent the many different architectural eras and styles to be found in Cheshire’s churches. The book covers a cross-section of churches throughout the county, both well-known and those waiting to be discovered by a wider audience. This fascinating picture of an important part of the history of Cheshire over the centuries will be of interest to all those who live in or are visiting this attractive county in England.

This is the first of a series of three volumes which are intended to present a complete corpus of all the church buildings in use in the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem between the capture of Jerusalem by the First Crusade in 1099 and the loss of Acre in 1291. Volume II completes the general topographical coverage begun in Volume I, while Volume III will deal specifically with Jerusalem, Acre and Tyre. When complete the Corpus will contain a topographical listing of all the 400 or more church buildings of the Kingdom and individual descriptions and discussion of them in terms of their identification, building history and architecture. A feature of the Corpus is the standardized format in which the evidence is presented; this also extends to the plans and elevations which are drawn to a uniform style and scale. The Corpus will therefore be an indispensable work of reference for all those concerned with the history and architecture of the Latin east.

With meticulous research and carefully chosen illustrations, Phoebe Stanton here explores the influence of the English Gothic revival on American church architecture in the mid-nineteenth century, arguing that this fundamentally conservative movement provided a foundation for a new aesthetic. Examining the writings of the movement's leading proponents as well as a variety of important buildings, Stanton offers a comprehensive survey of the architectural principles and models that became most influential in America. She also confirms the importance of the Cambridge Camden Society, which provided the theoretical atmosphere and practical examples that helped to establish new standards of excellence in American architecture.

Edinburgh was founded as a Royal Burgh by King David I in the early 12th century though there had been a settlement on what became the castle rock for centuries before that. King David is also thought to be responsible for the city's oldest building, a chapel built in honour of his mother, Queen Margaret, who was later declared a saint. Churches of Edinburgh looks at the city's churches from this earliest surviving example to the award-winning Chapel of Saint Albert the Great opened some 900 years later, telling their stories, discussing their architecture and pointing out their notable features as well as outlining the important part that some of Edinburgh's churches have played in major events in Scottish history such as the Reformation or the National Covenant. The churches featured include, among many others, the ruined 13th century Abbey that was once a meeting place for the Scottish Parliament, the church that retains a seat for Queen Victoria and the one that has its own canal boat. There is also the story of the fifteenth century church that was demolished in 1848 but was later partially rebuilt elsewhere and that of the important artworks that lie hidden beneath the paintwork of another city church. This fascinating picture of an important part of the history of Edinburgh and Scotland over the centuries will be of interest to all those who live in or are visiting Scotland's capital city.

Tracing its origins and development, Bloom reveals that the Minaret, long understood to have been invented in the early years of Islam as the place from which the muezzin gives the call to prayer, was actually invented some two centuries later to be a visible symbol of Islam. From early Islam to the modern world, and from Iran, Egypt, Turkey and India to West and East Africa, the Yemen and Southeast Asia, this richly illustrated book is a sweeping tour of the minaret's position as the symbol of Islam.

Germany is currently experiencing an intense debate about the reconstruction of synagogues that were destroyed under Nazi rule in the 1930s, and the related search for an appropriate architectural expression of Jewish life and culture in the country’s major cities today. This book, which results from a collaboration between the Technical Universities of Darmstadt and Dresden, Hamburg’s HafenCity University, and the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, vividly contributes to this discussion. The Synagogue Project features designs for new synagogues replacing the lost buildings on Berlin’s Fraenkelufer and on Joseph-Carlebach-Platz and Poolstrasse in Hamburg by students at the participating universities. They illustrate the search for a structural expression that can provide space for Jewish life and worship in the future. In conversation, members of Jewish communities and Franz-Josef Höing, representing the City of Hamburg’s department of urban development and housing, explain their views on the past and future of synagogues in Hamburg and Berlin. Mirjam Wenzel, director of the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt, Salomon Korn, former vice-president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, Rabbi Edward van Voolen, and Swiss architect Roger Diener also contribute to the discussion on the history and significance of spaces for Jewish life, culture, and religion in German cities. Text in English and German.

Canterbury Cathedral possesses a unique marble mosaic pavement, dating from the early 12th century, which has long intrigued scholars and been the subject of speculation and debate. It forms part of the floor of the Trinity chapel, adjacent to the site where the shrine of St Thomas Becket stood, prior to the Reformation. Since the mosaic is older than the chapel itself and partly destroyed a pavement of figurative roundels, laid c.1215, it must have been moved here from elsewhere in the cathedral. This volume explores the history and archaeology of the Trinity chapel, the pavement and the physical remains of the cult of Becket, based largely on hitherto unrecorded and unpublished evidence. In the early 12th century, Archbishop Anselm rebuilt the eastern arm of the cathedral, introducing architectural elements from his native Italy, and these included a magnificent mosaic pavement, composed of the most expensive marbles, which lay in front of the high altar. In 1170, Archbishop Becket was murdered in the cathedral, and his body rested overnight on the pavement before being buried in the crypt. Thomas was immediately revered as a martyr, and in 1173 was canonised by the pope; a simple shrine was erected over his tomb. In the following year, a fire (arson) destroyed the eastern arm of the cathedral, precipitating the construction of the present Trinity and Corona chapels, wherein St Thomas’s remains were enshrined. After decades of delay and political strife, the enshrinement took place in 1220, in the presence of Henry III. The shrine comprised a great marble table, supported on six clusters of columns. On top of the table was a marble sarcophagus containing the saint’s body in an iron-bound timber coffin, over which stood the sumptuous feretory, a gabled timber ‘roof’, plated with sheets of gold and adorned with jewels. East of the shrine lies the small Corona chapel in which a fragment of Becket’s skull was separately encased in a ‘head-shrine’, and to the west a large area was paved with forty-eight figurative stone roundels, created by French artisans. All around, stained-glass windows display the early miracles of Becket. The layout of the Trinity chapel underwent transmutations, first around 1230, when the mosaic pavement was taken up from the old presbytery, reduced in size and relaid in front of Becket’s shrine, where is it today. Second, the chapel was reordered in c. 1290, when the podium carrying the shrine was enlarged and the paving around it reconfigured. Medieval tombs were now being installed in the chapels, including those of the Black Prince and Henry IV. The end came in 1538, when Henry VIII ordered the thorough destruction of Becket’s shrines, but a great deal of archaeological evidence remained in the floors, walls and a few surviving fragments of the shrines, all now recorded and discussed in this beautifully illustrated volume for the first time.

This lavishly illustrated volume presents a comprehensive architectural study of 87 individual temples and sanctuaries built in the Roman East between the end of the 1st century BCE and the end of the 3rd century CE, within a broad region encompassing the modern states of Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. Religious architecture gave faithful expression to the complexity of the Roman East and to its multiplicity of traditions pertaining to ethnic and religious aspects as well as to the powerful influence of Imperial Rome. The source of this power lay in the uniformity of the architectural language, the inventory of forms, the choice of styles and the spatial layout of the buildings. Thus, while temples have an eclectic character, there is an underlying unity of form comprising the podium, the stairway between the terminating walls (antae) and the columns along the entrance front - in other words, the axiality, frontality and symmetry of the temple as viewed from outside. The temples and sanctuaries studied in this volume demonstrate individual nuances of plan, spatial design, location in the sanctuary and interrelations with the immediate vicinity but can be divided into two main categories: Vitruvian temples (derived from Hellenistic-Roman architecture) and Non-Vitruvian temples (those with plans and spatial designs that cannot be analysed according to architectural criteria such as those defined by Vitruvius). The individual descriptions presented focus solely upon the analysis of the external and internal space of the temples of all types and do not involve any cultural or ethnic discussion.

The Cambridge Guide to the Architecture of Christianity offers a wide-ranging overview of one of the most important genres of Western architecture, from its origins in the Early Christian era to the present day. Including 103 essays, specially commissioned for these two volumes and written by an international team of scholars, this publication examines a range of themes and issues, including religious building types, siting, regional traditions, ornament, and structure. It also explores how patrons and architects responded to the spiritual needs and cult practices of Christianity as they developed and evolved over the centuries. This publication is richly illustrated with 588 halftones and 70 color plates. 856 additional images, nearly all in color, are available online and are keyed into the text. The most comprehensive and up-to date reference work on this topic, The Cambridge Guide to the Architecture of Christianity will serve as a primary reference resource for scholars, practitioners, and students.

This comprehensive, interdisciplinary collection illuminates many previously unexplored aspects of the Basilica of San Lorenzo's history, extending from its Early Christian foundation to the modern era. Brunelleschi's rebuilt Basilica, the center of liturgical patronage of the Medici and their grand-ducal successors until the nineteenth century, is today one of the most frequently studied churches in Florence. Modern research has tended, however, to focus on the remarkable art and architecture from ca. 1400-1600. In this wide-ranging collection, scholars investigate: the urban setting of the church and its parish; San Lorenzo's relations with other ecclesiastical institutions; the genesis of individual major buildings of the complex and their decorations; the clergy, chapels and altars; the chapter's administration and financial structure; lay and clerical patronage; devotional furnishings, music, illuminated liturgical manuscripts, and preaching; as well as the annual or ephemeral festal practices on the site. Each contribution offers a profound exploration of its topic, wide-ranging in its chronological scope. One encounters here fresh archival research, the publication of relevant documents, and critical assessments of the historiography. San Lorenzo is represented in this volume as a living Florentine institution, continually reshaped by complex historical forces.

Within the stunning landscape of Derbyshire lies a wealth of historic churches. These buildings have borne witness to the changes that have taken place in the county through the centuries. Towns, villages and cities all have their church buildings, many dating from the Middle Ages. In this book author David Paul surveys the historic churches of Derbyshire. They range from the plague village church of St Lawrence in Eyam, the famous crooked spire of St Mary and All Saints at Chesterfield, Bakewell's medieval church of All Saints with its Saxon crosses and carved stones, and many more. The text is accompanied throughout by attractive photographs of these captivating places of worship. This fascinating picture of an important part of the history of Derbyshire over the centuries will be of interest to all those who live in or are visiting this county in England.