Eastern Orthodox church architecture

Orthodox churches sometimes vary in appearance, but especially in the design and equipment of the interior of the Roman Catholic and Protestant church buildings. Church building Catholic communities unierter follow largely the scheme of the Orthodox, since they maintain Orthodox rites despite subjection to the Pope.

Designs

The exterior of the frequent preference for domes that occur much less in the western church.

Sveti Jovan Kaneo in Ohrid (Macedonia ), 13th century

St. Anthony Church in Bucharest, Romania

Orthodox or Uniate Church in the village Kwiatoń (Poland )

PANTANASSA Monastery ( Mistra, GR ) 15th century

Examples of orthodox churches of different styles of architectural history and regional building traditions:

Church on Mykonos as an example of the Cycladic architecture

Renaissance: Dormition Cathedral (Moscow)

Orthodox Baroque church in Corfu

Classicism: St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg

Basic shapes

In Greece, the Slavic countries of South Eastern Europe and in Russia, the cross-domed church is the default schema. A large part of the Orthodox churches is not much longer than wide, because you preferred to approximate the layout of the higher parts of the building, a Greek cross ( cruciform church in the narrower sense). In Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland's Orthodox Ruthenian, farming areas and Uniate churches consist often of a series of multiple components, each approximately square ground plan. The design of the basilica comes in Orthodoxy only available as cross basilica with mostly very short cross arms.

Local features

The temporal evolution of the Orthodox church architecture is characterized by a stronger attachment to the late Roman architecture and the less frequent revisiting architectural fashions, as for example in the Western Church ( Catholic and Protestant ). Not insignificant for this development is the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople Opel, now Istanbul, and their loss to the orthodoxy. As with other denominations, however, found in Orthodoxy outstanding examples of all architectural eras.

There are also regional differences, favored by the fact that a large part of the Eastern Church communities is autocephalous, on the other hand by regional building materials or the coexistence with other religious communities.

In Greece, the modern-day Turkey and the Balkans, the church domes are usually single skin, which makes them seem squat outside. In Russian lands built or is building one, however, preferably onion-shaped roofs of the domes. The stylistic feature of Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral and some similarly designed smaller churches of the same period is interpreted to the effect that here the conquered the architecture of the mosque and destroyed shortly before the Tatar capital Kazan Pate has confessed.

In the Eastern Church Architecture of Poland-Lithuania were found more frequently baroque elements ( Ukrainian Baroque) recording. Fresco painting of the exterior walls and to protect them far protruding roofs are a specialty of the Romanian Church ( Moldavian monasteries in the territory of the former Principality of Moldavia and the wooden churches in the Maramureş ).

Monasteries

A large proportion of historical significance Orthodox churches are monastic churches. Examples:

• Putna Monastery (Romania )
• Osios Loukas (Greece )
• Studenica (Serbia ), the Mother of God Church, exceptionally, has a very elongated floor plan.
• Monastery Horezu (Romania )
• Rila Monastery (Bulgaria), expanded generously in the 19th century
• Sveti Naum (Macedonia), from the 9th century
• Kiev Pechersk Lavra (Ukraine ), Example of Ukrainian baroque
• Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius (Russia), better known under the name Soviet Sagorsk

In Orthodox monasteries often is more than just a church; a cloister they almost never have it.

Historical conditions

As with any widespread religious buildings, the size of Eastern Christian churches, not least influenced by whether each church community was closely tied to the state, or only tolerated under Islamic or Catholic domination. So many places churches were built in Greece and the Balkan countries after their secession from the Ottoman Empire, which are larger than those obtained there medieval, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia.

The exterior of reclassified denominational churches, for example, in the past belonging to the Polish-Lithuanian places in Belarus and Ukraine or in the Kaliningrad region, reflected as everywhere against the denomination of the original builders.

Interior decoration

The interior of Orthodox church building is on the needs of the Eastern Church rite, designed in Europe mostly Byzantine rite:

• The altar area ( sanctuary ) is optically separated from the congregation by a space covered with pictures partition, the iconostasis. This separation can be understood as recourse to pre-Christian Greek tradition; the most important part of ancient Greek and ancient Roman temple was the cella, to which only priests had access. In the Middle Ages there were also in many Western churches separation, but the view is usually not completely obstructed, the rood screen. For orthodox theology hiding the Holy of Holies behind the iconostasis that God without the mediation is unreachable through Christ. The image contents of the iconostasis convey according to this doctrine between the community and the Blessed Sacrament. The iconostasis is designed so that in spite of this space -sharing the spoken and sung behind the partition liturgy can be understood in the community room.
• The design of the images, icons, traditionally is under strict rules.
• Orthodox churches have no organs, as orthodox Christianity considers the human voice as the only acceptable instrument, to offer God praise.
• Orthodox churches usually have no pews, but only for old and the weak one row of seats on the walls. The majority of the community is therefore during the liturgy.

Also on the iconostasis addition, not painted magnificently few Orthodox churches. Historically it the Byzantine iconoclastic controversy of the early Middle Ages is remarkable, in which the iconoclasts against the pictorial decoration of the churches turned, centuries before the iconoclasts at the time of the Western Church Reformation. At the Second Council of Nicaea in this dispute was terminated by the pictorial representation of Christ, the angels and the saints was expressly approved by reference to the incarnation of Christ. However, this applies only for two-dimensional (waste) images. In this memory of the biblical prohibition of images sculptures are not common in Orthodox churches and are commonly seen with skepticism. In Greece, as in Russia were decorated the interior walls and vaults of the churches happy with mosaics. While these are preferably made ​​of simple materials were in the early period (glass mosaics ), was later not stingy with gold.

Pictures

Panagia Chalkeon Church in Thessaloniki, 13th century

St. George's Cathedral in Alaverdi (Georgia), 11th century

Monastery church Moldoviţa (Romania ), 16th century

One of the towers of the Golden Cave Monastery, Kiev ( Ukraine)

Uspensky Cathedral of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra

Rila Monastery Church (Bulgaria ), 10th and 19th century

Church of the former residence Bogolyubovo on the Nerl (Russia), 12th century

Russian Orthodox Church in Wiesbaden

Armenian Vank Cathedral in Isfahan ( Iran)

St. Michael and Constantius in Vilnius (Lithuania )

Densus Church of Romania

Iconostasis of the monastery church of Putna (Romania )

Studenica Monastery (Serbia )

Cross-domed church Kapnikarea (Athens), 11th century

Floor plan of Kapnikarea (Athens)

Cathedral of Saint Sava on the Vračar Belgrade ( Serbia)