Ottonian architecture

May 29, 2009 by blogtopia  
Filed under Architectural style

hildesheim_st_michaels_church Ottonian Architecture evolved during the reign of Emperor Otto the Great (936-975). The style was found in Germany and lasted from the mid 10th century until the mid 11th century.

Ottonian architecture draws its inspiration from Carolingian and Byzantine architecture. Apart from some examples influenced by the octagonal Palatine Chapel at Aachen such as Ottmarsheim (11th century, Alsace) and the apse of the abbey of the Holy Trinity at Essen, religious architecture tends to diverge from the centralized plan. Inspiration though from the Roman basilica remains concurrent, and Ottonian architecture preserves the Carolingian double ended feature with apses at either end of the church.

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Neo-Byzantine architecture

May 28, 2009 by blogtopia  
Filed under Architectural style

alexander_nevski_cathedral Neo-Byzantine architecture is an architectural revival style, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It emerged in 1840s in Western Europe and peaked in the last quarter of 19th century in the Russian Empire; an isolated Neo-Byzantine school was active in Yugoslavia between World War I and World War II.

Neo-Byzantine architecture incorporates elements of the Byzantine style associated with Eastern and Orthodox Christian architecture dating from the 5th through 11th centuries, notably that of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) and the Exarchate of Ravenna.

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Byzantine architecture

May 27, 2009 by blogtopia  
Filed under Architectural style

chapelle_palatine Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to Byzantium. Byzantium, "New Rome", was later renamed Constantinople and is now called Istanbul. The empire endured for more than a millennium, dramatically influencing Medieval and Renaissance era architecture in Europe and, following the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, leading directly to the architecture of the Ottoman Empire.

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