Basilica
In
Originally, a basilica was an ancient Roman public building, where courts were held, as well as serving other official and public functions. Basilicas are typically rectangular buildings with a central nave flanked by two or more longitudinal aisles, with the roof at two levels, being higher in the centre over the nave to admit a clerestory and lower over the side-aisles. An apse at one end, or less frequently at both ends or on the side, usually contained the raised tribunal occupied by the Roman magistrates. The basilica was centrally located in every Roman town, usually adjacent to the forum and often opposite a temple in imperial-era forums.[1] Basilicas were also built in private residences and imperial palaces and were known as "palace basilicas".
In late antiquity, church buildings were typically constructed either as martyria, or with a basilica's architectural plan. A number of monumental Christian basilicas were constructed during the latter reign of Constantine the Great. In the post Nicene period, basilicas became a standard model for Christian spaces for congregational worship throughout the Mediterranean and Europe. From the early 4th century, Christian basilicas, along with their associated catacombs, were used for burial of the dead.
By extension, the name was later applied to Christian churches that adopted the same basic plan. It continues to be used in an architectural sense to describe rectangular buildings with a central nave and aisles, and usually a raised platform at the end opposite the door. In Europe and the Americas, the basilica remained the most common architectural style for churches of all Christian denominations, though this building plan has become less dominant in buildings constructed since the late 20th century.
The
Origins
The Latin word
The plays of
These basilicas were rectangular, typically with central nave and aisles, usually with a slightly raised platform and an apse at each of the two ends, adorned with a statue perhaps of the emperor, while the entrances were from the long sides.[4][5] The Roman basilica was a large public building where business or legal matters could be transacted. As early as the time of Augustus, a public basilica for transacting business had been part of any settlement that considered itself a city, used in the same way as the covered market houses of late medieval northern Europe, where the meeting room, for lack of urban space, was set above the arcades, however.[clarify][citation needed] Although their form was variable, basilicas often contained interior colonnades that divided the space, giving aisles or arcaded spaces on one or both sides, with an apse at one end (or less often at each end), where the magistrates sat, often on a slightly raised dais. The central aisle – the nave – tended to be wider and taller than the flanking aisles, so that light could penetrate through the clerestory windows.[citation needed]
In the late Republican era, basilicas were increasingly monumental; Julius Caesar replaced the Basilica Sempronia with his own Basilica Julia, dedicated in 46 BC, while the Basilica Aemilia was rebuilt around 54 BC in so spectacular a fashion that Pliny the Elder wrote that it was among the most beautiful buildings in the world (it was simultaneously renamed the Basilica Paulli). Thereafter until the 4th century AD, monumental basilicas were routinely constructed at Rome by both private citizens and the emperors. These basilicas were reception halls and grand spaces in which élite persons could impress guests and visitors, and could be attached to a large country villa or an urban domus. They were simpler and smaller than were civic basilicas, and can be identified by inscriptions or their position in the archaeological context. Domitian constructed a basilica on the Palatine Hill for his imperial residential complex around 92 AD, and a palatine basilica was typical in imperial palaces throughout the imperial period.[3]
Roman Republic
Long, rectangular basilicas with internal
Beside the Basilica Porcia on the Forum Romanum, the
The basilica at Ephesus is typical of the basilicas in the Roman East, which usually have a very elongated footprint and a ratio between 1:5 and 1:9, with open porticoes facing the agora (the Hellenic forum); this design was influenced by the existing tradition of long stoae in Hellenistic Asia.[3] Provinces in the west lacked this tradition, and the basilicas the Romans commissioned there were more typically Italian, with the central nave divided from the side-aisles by an internal colonnade in regular proportions.[3]
Early Empire
Beginning with the
At Ephesus the basilica-stoa had two storeys and three aisles and extended the length of the civic agora's north side, complete with colossal statues of the emperor Augustus and his imperial family.[7]
The remains of a large subterranean
After its destruction in 60 AD, Londinium (London) was endowed with its first forum and basilica under the Flavian dynasty.[13] The basilica delimited the northern edge of the forum with typical nave, aisles, and a tribunal, but with an atypical semi-basement at the western side.[13] Unlike in Gaul, basilica-forum complexes in Roman Britain did not usually include a temple; instead a shrine was usually inside the basilica itself.[13] At Londinium however, there was probably no temple at all attached to the original basilica, but instead a contemporary temple was constructed nearby.[13] Later, in 79 AD, an inscription commemorated the completion of the 385 by 120 foot (117 m × 37 m) basilica at Verulamium (St Albans) under the governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola; by contrast the first basilica at Londinium was only 148 by 75 feet (45 m × 23 m).[13] The smallest known basilica in Britain was built by the Silures at Caerwent and measured 180 by 100 feet (55 m × 30 m).[13]
When Londinium became a
At
The emperor
In early 123, the
The Basilica Hilariana (built c. 145–155) was designed for the use of the cult of Cybele.[3]
The largest basilica built outside Rome was that built under the
The basilica at Leptis Magna, built by the Septimius Severus a century later in about 216 is a notable 3rd century AD example of the traditional type, most notable among the works influenced by the Basilica Ulpia.[2][3] The basilica at Leptis was built mainly of limestone ashlar, but the apses at either end were only limestone in the outer sections and built largely of rubble masonry faced with brick, with a number of decorative panels in opus reticulatum.[20] The basilica stood in a new forum and was accompanied by a programme of Severan works at Leptis including thermae, a new harbour, and a public fountain.[6] At Volubilis, principal city of Mauretania Tingitana, a basilica modelled on Leptis Magna's was completed during the short reign of Macrinus.[21]
Basilicas in the Roman Forum
- Basilica Porcia: first basilica built in Rome (184 BC), erected on the personal initiative and financing of the censor Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Elder) as an official building for the tribunes of the plebs
- Basilica Aemilia, built by the censor Aemilius Lepidus in 179 BC
- Basilica Sempronia, built by the censor Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus in 169 BC
- Basilica Opimia, erected probably by the consul Lucius Opimius in 121 BC, at the same time that he restored the temple of Concord (Platner, Ashby 1929)
- Basilica Julia, initially dedicated in 46 BC by Julius Caesar and completed by Augustus 27 BC to AD 14
- Basilica Argentaria, erected under Trajan, emperor from AD 98 to 117
- Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine(built between AD 308 and 312)
Late antiquity
The aisled-hall plan of the basilica was adopted by a number of religious cults in late antiquity.[2] At Sardis, a monumental basilica housed the city's synagogue, serving the local Jewish diaspora.[22] New religions like Christianity required space for congregational worship, and the basilica was adapted by the early Church for worship.[8] Because they were able to hold large number of people, basilicas were adopted for Christian liturgical use after Constantine the Great. The early churches of Rome were basilicas with an apsidal tribunal and used the same construction techniques of columns and timber roofing.[2]
At the start of the 4th century at Rome there was a change in burial and
Under Constantine, the basilica became the most prestigious style of church building, was "normative" for church buildings by the end of the 4th century, and were ubiquitous in western Asia, North Africa, and most of Europe by the close of the 7th century.[25] Christians also continued to hold services in synagogues, houses, and gardens, and continued practising baptism in rivers, ponds, and Roman bathhouses.[25][26]
The development of Christian basilicas began even before Constantine's reign: a 3rd-century
Three examples of a basilica discoperta or "
The magnificence of early Christian basilicas reflected the patronage of the emperor and recalled his imperial palaces and reflected the royal associations of the basilica with the
Basilica churches were not economically inactive. Like non-Christian or civic basilicas, basilica churches had a commercial function integral to their local trade routes and economies.
According to
Basilica of Maxentius
The 4th century
Inside the basilica the central nave was accessed by five doors opening from an entrance hall on the eastern side and terminated in an apse at the western end.[32] Another, shallower apse with niches for statues was added to the centre of the north wall in a second campaign of building, while the western apse housed a colossal acrolithic statue of the emperor Constantine enthroned.[32] Fragments of this statue are now in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline Hill, part of the Capitoline Museums. Opposite the northern apse on the southern wall, another monumental entrance was added and elaborated with a portico of porphyry columns.[32] One of the remaining marble interior columns was removed in 1613 by Pope Paul V and set up as an honorific column outside Santa Maria Maggiore.[32]
Constantinian period
In the early 4th century
Around 310, while still a self-proclaimed augustus unrecognised at Rome, Constantine began the construction of the Basilica Constantiniana or
In the reign of Constantine I, a basilica was constructed for the
According to the Liber Pontificalis, Constantine was also responsible for the rich interior decoration of the Lateran Baptistery constructed under Pope Sylvester I (r. 314–335), sited about 50 metres (160 ft).[26] The Lateran Baptistery was the first monumental free-standing baptistery, and in subsequent centuries Christian basilica churches were often endowed with such baptisteries.[26]
At Cirta, a Christian basilica erected by Constantine was taken over by his opponents, the Donatists.[36] After Constantine's failure to resolve the Donatist controversy by coercion between 317 and 321, he allowed the Donatists, who dominated Africa, to retain the basilica and constructed a new one for the Catholic Church.[36]
The original titular churches of Rome were those which had been private residences and which were donated to be converted to places of Christian worship.[25] Above an originally 1st century AD villa and its later adjoining warehouse and Mithraeum, a large basilica church had been erected by 350, subsuming the earlier structures beneath it as a crypt.[25] The basilica was the first church of San Clemente al Laterano.[25] Similarly, at Santi Giovanni e Paolo al Celio, an entire ancient city block – a 2nd-century insula on the Caelian Hill – was buried beneath a 4th-century basilica.[25] The site was already venerated as the martyrium of three early Christian burials beforehand, and part of the insula had been decorated in the style favoured by Christian communities frequenting the early Catacombs of Rome.[25]
By 350 in Serdica (Sofia, Bulgaria), a monumental basilica – the Church of Saint Sophia – was erected, covering earlier structures including a Christian chapel, an oratory, and a cemetery dated to c. 310.[25] Other major basilica from this period, in this part of Europe, is the Great Basilica in Philippopolis (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) from the 4th century AD.
Valentinianic–Theodosian period
In the late 4th century the dispute between
At Philippi, the market adjoining the 1st-century forum was demolished and replaced with a Christian basilica.[7] Civic basilicas throughout Asia Minor became Christian places of worship; examples are known at Ephesus, Aspendos, and at Magnesia on the Maeander.[24] The Great Basilica in Antioch of Pisidia is a rare securely dated 4th century Christian basilica and was the city's cathedral church.[24] The mosaics of the floor credit Optimus, the bishop, with its dedication.[24] Optimus was a contemporary of Basil of Caesarea and corresponded with him c. 377.[24] Optimus was the city's delegate at the First Council of Constantinople in 381, so the 70 m-long single-apsed basilica near the city walls must have been constructed around that time.[24] Pisidia had a number of Christian basilicas constructed in Late Antiquity, particularly in former bouleuteria, as at Sagalassos, Selge, Pednelissus, while a civic basilica was converted for Christians' use in Cremna.[24]
At Chalcedon, opposite Constantinople on the Bosporus, the relics of Euphemia – a supposed Christian martyr of the Diocletianic Persecution – were housed in a martyrium accompanied by a basilica.[39] The basilica already existed when Egeria passed through Chalcedon in 384, and in 436 Melania the Younger visited the church on her own journey to the Holy Land.[39] From the description of Evagrius Scholasticus the church is identifiable as an aisled basilica attached to the martyrium and preceded by an atrium.[40] The Council of Chalcedon (8–31 October 451) was held in the basilica, which must have been large enough to accommodate the more than two hundred bishops that attended its third session, together with their translators and servants; around 350 bishops attended the Council in all.[41][42] In an ekphrasis in his eleventh sermon, Asterius of Amasea described an icon in the church depicting Euphemia's martyrdom.[39] The church was restored under the patronage of the patricia and daughter of Olybrius, Anicia Juliana.[43] Pope Vigilius fled there from Constantinople during the Three-Chapter Controversy.[44] The basilica, which lay outside the walls of Chalcedon, was destroyed by the Persians in the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 during one of the Sasanian occupations of the city in 615 and 626.[45] The relics of Euphemia were reportedly translated to a new Church of St Euphemia in Constantinople in 680, though Cyril Mango argued the translation never took place.[46][47] Subsequently, Asterius's sermon On the Martyrdom of St Euphemia was advanced as an argument for iconodulism at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.[48]
In the late 4th century, a large basilica church dedicated to
At
The largest and oldest basilica churches in Egypt were at
The Church of the East's
In eastern
A Christian basilica was constructed in the first half of the 5th century at
In Bulgaria there are major basilicas from that time like Elenska Basilica and the Red Church.
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Santa Sabina, Rome, 422–432.
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Interior of Santa Sabina, withCorinthian columns from the Temple of Juno Regina.
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Basilica church of the Monastery of Stoudios, Constantinple, 5th century, as depicted in the Menologion of Basil II, c. 1000.
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Apse of the ruined Great Basilica, Antioch in Pisidia. The floor dates to late 4th century, and the walls to the 5th or 6th century. The building has a semi-circular interior and a polygonal exterior.
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Bird's eye view of the Elenska Basilica complex, Pirdop, Bulgaria.
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The Red Church, Perushtitsa, Bulgaria.
Leonid period
On Crete, the Roman cities suffered from repeated earthquakes in the 4th century, but between c. 450 and c. 550, a large number of Christian basilicas were constructed.[59] Crete was throughout Late Antiquity a province of the Diocese of Macedonia, governed from Thessaloniki.[59]
Nine basilica churches were built at
The Small Basilica of Philippopolis (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) in Thrace was built in the second half of the 5th century AD.
-
Drawing of the 5th century Church of the Acheiropoietos by Charles Texier, 1864
-
Leonid basilica Church of the Acheiropoietos, Thessaloniki, 450–60
-
5th-century mosaic of a basilica (Louvre)
Justinianic period
At Constantinople, Justinian constructed the largest domed basilica: on the site of the 4th century basilica Church of
The mid-6th century Bishop of
The 4th century basilica of Saint Sophia Church at Serdica (Sofia, Bulgaria) was rebuilt in the 5th century and ultimately replaced by a new monumental basilica in the late 6th century, and some construction phases continued into the 8th century.[65] This basilica was the cathedral of Serdica and was one of three basilicas known to lie outside the walls; three more churches were within the walled city, of which the Church of Saint George was a former Roman bath built in the 4th century, and another was a former Mithraeum.[65] The basilicas were associated with cemeteries with Christian inscriptions and burials.[65]
Another basilica from this period in Bulgaria was the Belovo Basilica (6th century AD).
The
-
Saint Sophia, Serdica (Sofia), built 4th–8th centuries
-
Ostrogothic Basilica of Christ the Redeemer, Ravenna, 504. Rededicated 561 to St Apollinaris
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Justinianic Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, after 529
-
Floor plan of the Justinianic Basilica of St John, Ephesus, after 535/6
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Ruins of the 10th-century Church of Achillius of Larissa, on the eponymous island of Agios Achilleios, Mikra Prespa, a typical basilica church[68]
-
Belovo Basilica, Belovo Municipality, Bulgaria
Palace basilicas
In the
They now tended to dominate their cities from opulent palaces and country villas, set a little apart from traditional centers of public life. Rather than retreats from public life, however, these residences were the forum made private.
- — Peter Brown, in Paul Veyne, 1987
Seated in the tribune of his basilica, the great man would meet his dependent clientes early every morning.
Constantine's basilica at Trier, the Aula Palatina (AD 306), is still standing. A private basilica excavated at Bulla Regia (Tunisia), in the "House of the Hunt", dates from the first half of the 5th century. Its reception or audience hall is a long rectangular nave-like space, flanked by dependent rooms that mostly also open into one another, ending in a semi-circular apse, with matching transept spaces. Clustered columns emphasised the "crossing" of the two axes.
Christian adoption of the basilica form
In the 4th century, once the Imperial authorities had decriminalised Christianity with the 313
There were several variations of the basic plan of the secular basilica, always some kind of rectangular hall, but the one usually followed for churches had a central nave with one aisle at each side and an apse at one end opposite to the main door at the other end. In (and often also in front of) the apse was a raised platform, where the altar was placed, and from where the clergy officiated. In secular building this plan was more typically used for the smaller audience halls of the emperors, governors, and the very rich than for the great public basilicas functioning as law courts and other public purposes.[70] Constantine built a basilica of this type in his palace complex at Trier, later very easily adopted for use as a church. It is a long rectangle two storeys high, with ranks of arch-headed windows one above the other, without aisles (there was no mercantile exchange in this imperial basilica) and, at the far end beyond a huge arch, the apse in which Constantine held state.
-
Basilica: The central nave extends to one or two storeys more than the lateral aisles, and it has upper windows.
-
Pseudo-basilica (i. e. false basilica): The central nave extends to an additional storey, but it has no upper windows.
-
Stepped hall: The vaults of the central nave begin a bit higher than those of the lateral aisles, but there is no additional storey.
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Hall church: All vaults are almost on the same level.
-
barrel-vaultand upper windows above lateral chapels
Development
Putting an
The first basilicas with transepts were built under the orders of
Around 380,
Gregory Nazianzen, describing the Constantinian Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople, was the first to point out its resemblance to a cross. Because the cult of the crosswas spreading at about the same time, this comparison met with stunning success.
- — Yvon Thébert, in Veyne, 1987
Thus, a Christian symbolic theme was applied quite naturally to a form borrowed from civil semi-public precedents. The first great Imperially sponsored Christian basilica is that of
A Christian basilica of the 4th or 5th century stood behind its entirely enclosed forecourt ringed with a colonnade or arcade, like the stoa or peristyle that was its ancestor or like the cloister that was its descendant. This forecourt was entered from outside through a range of buildings along the public street. This was the architectural ground-plan of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, until in the 15th century it was demolished to make way for a modern church built to a new plan.
In most basilicas, the central nave is taller than the aisles, forming a row of windows called a clerestory. Some basilicas in the Caucasus, particularly those of Armenia and Georgia, have a central nave only slightly higher than the two aisles and a single pitched roof covering all three. The result is a much darker interior. This plan is known as the "oriental basilica", or "pseudobasilica" in central Europe. A peculiar type of basilica, known as three-church basilica, was developed in early medieval Georgia, characterised by the central nave which is completely separated from the aisles with solid walls.[71]
Gradually, in the Early Middle Ages there emerged the massive Romanesque churches, which still kept the fundamental plan of the basilica.
In Medieval Bulgaria the Great Basilica was finished around 875. The architectural complex in Pliska, the first capital of the First Bulgarian Empire, included a cathedral, an archbishop's palace and a monastery.[72] The basilica was one of the greatest Christian cathedrals in Europe of the time, with an area of 2,920 square metres (31,400 sq ft). The still in use Church of Saint Sophia in Ohrid is another example from Medieval Bulgaria.
In Romania, the word for church both as a building and as an institution is biserică, derived from the term basilica.
In the
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Old St Peter's, Rome, as the 4th-century basilica had developed by the mid-15th century, in a 19th-century reconstruction
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St John in the Lateranis both an architectural and an ecclesiastical basilica.
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Lutheran Bursfelde Abbey in Germany
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Gothic stylebasilica
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St. Sebald's in Nuremberg has a basilical nave and a hall choir.
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Palma Cathedral on Mallorca in Spain has windows on three levels, one above the aisles, one above the file of chapels and one in the chapels.
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A rare American church built imitating the architecture of an Early Christian basilica,St. Mary's (German) Church in Pennsylvania, now demolished
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Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia
Catholic basilicas
In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a church with special privileges. It is typically housed in a large and important building. This designation may be made by the Pope or may date from time immemorial.[73][74] Basilica churches are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building does not need to be a basilica in the architectural sense. Basilicas are either major basilicas – of which there are four, all in the diocese of Rome—or minor basilicas, of which there were 1,810 worldwide as of 2019[update].[75] The Umbraculum is displayed in a basilica to the right side (i.e. the Epistle side) of the altar to indicate that the church has been awarded the rank of a basilica.
See also
- Macellum – Roman covered market
- Market hall – modern covered market
- Courthouse
- Curia
- Municipal curiae
- Town hall
Architecture
References
Citations
- ISBN 0714822140; Sear, F. B., "Architecture, 1, a) Religious", section in Diane Favro, et al. "Rome, ancient." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 26 March 2016, subscription required
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-280146-3
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-517072-6
- ISBN 978-0-19968027-6), p. 117
- ^ "The Institute for Sacred Architecture – Articles – The Eschatological Dimension of Church Architecture". sacredarchitecture.org.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-978330-4
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-936904-1
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-953404-3
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-936904-1
- ^ Vitruvius, De architectura, V:1.6–10
- )
- S2CID 163868898– via JSTOR.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-520-04922-2.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-520-04922-2.
- ^ Johnson, Ben. "The Remains of London's Roman Basilica and Forum". Historic UK. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-870677-9
- ^ ISBN 9780199734856.
- ISBN 978-0-19-870677-9
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-870677-9
- ^ Wilson, Andrew I. (2003). "Opus reticulatum panels in the Severan Basilica at Lepcis Magna". Quaderni di Archeologia della Libya. 18: 369–379.
- ISBN 978-1-909961-55-5.
- ISBN 978-0-19-870677-9
- ISBN 978-0-19-870677-9
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-936904-1
- ^ ISBN 9780199369041.
- ^ ISBN 9780199369041.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-936904-1
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-936904-1
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
- )
- OCLC 52303510.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Förtsch, Reinhard (2006). "Basilica Constantiniana". Brill's New Pauly.
- ^ Aurelius Victor, de Caesaribus, xl:26
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
- ISBN 9780199211524.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-870677-9
- ^ ISBN 9780198747871.
- ^ Augustine of Hippo, Confessiones, ix:7:15–16
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8, retrieved 8 July 2020
- ISBN 978-0-85323-605-4.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of February 2024 (link - ISBN 978-0-85323-605-4.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of February 2024 (link - ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6, retrieved 9 July 2020
- ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8, retrieved 9 July 2020
- ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8, retrieved 9 July 2020
- ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6, retrieved 9 July 2020
- ISBN 978-0-19-925522-1.
- ^ Mango, Cyril (1999). "The Relics of St. Euphemia and the Synaxarion of Constantinople". Bollettino della Badia Greca di Grottoferrata. 53: 79–87.
- ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8, retrieved 8 July 2020
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8
- )
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-870677-9
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
- ^ )
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-870677-9
- ISBN 978-0-19-870677-9
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-870677-9
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-870677-9
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
- ISSN 1606-9749.
- )
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8
- ^ S2CID 164090791.
- JSTOR 4200392.
- ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
- ^ "Basilica Plan Churches". Cartage.org.lb. Archived from the original on 12 January 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
- ^ Syndicus, 40
- ISBN 978-90-04-37531-4.
- ^ "Възстановяването на Голямата базилика означава памет, родолюбие и туризъм".
- ^ 1 CIC 1917, can. 1180 as quoted in Basilicas Historical and Canonical Development, GABRIEL CHOW HOI-YAN, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 13 May 2003 (revised 24 June 2003). "It was not until 1917 that the Code of Canon Law officially recognized de jure churches that had the immemorial custom of using the title of basilica as having such a right to the title.81 We refer to such churches as immemorial."
- San Nicola di Tolentinoin 1783. An older minor basilica is referred to as an "immemorial basilica".
- ^ "Basilicas in the World". GCatholic.org. 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
General sources
- ISBN 0-300-05294-4.
- Architecture of the basilica
- Syndicus, Eduard, Early Christian Art, Burns & Oates, London, 1962
- Basilica Porcia
- W. Thayer, "Basilicas of Ancient Rome": from Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby), 1929. A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (London: Oxford University Press)
- Paul Veyne, ed. A History of Private Life I: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium, 1987
- Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador
- Gietmann, G. & Thurston, Herbert (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
External links
- Vitruvius, a 1st-century B.C. Roman architect, on how to design a basilica