Architecture of cathedrals and great churches

They also tend to display a higher level of contemporary architectural style and the work of accomplished craftsmen, and occupy a status both ecclesiastical and social that an ordinary parish church rarely has.

Different styles of architecture developed and their fashion spread, carried by the establishment of monastic orders, by the posting of bishops from one region to another and by the travelling of master stonemasons who served as architects.

Cathedrals are places where, in common with other Christian churches, the Eucharist is celebrated, the Bible is read, the liturgy is said or sung, prayers are offered and sermons are preached.

In areas with a state religion or an established church a cathedral is often the site of rituals associated with local or national government, the bishops performing the tasks of all sorts from the induction of a mayor to the coronation of a monarch.

Many churches of abbey foundation, are or previously were, part of a monastic complex that includes dormitories, refectory, cloisters, library, chapter house and other such buildings.

In many areas of Asia and South America, the monasteries had the earliest established churches, with the monastic communities acting initially as missionaries to, and colonists of, indigenous people.

[10] The church building grew out of a number of features of the Ancient Roman period: From the first to the early fourth centuries most Christian communities worshipped in private homes, often secretly.

The circular or polygonal form lent itself to those buildings within church complexes that perform a function in which it is desirable for people to stand, or sit around, with a centralised focus, rather than an axial one.

Other than Santa Costanza and San Stefano, there was another significant place of worship in Rome that was also circular, the vast Ancient Roman Pantheon, with its numerous statue-filled niches.

[5][11] As numbers of clergy increased, the small apse which contained the altar, or table upon which the sacramental bread and wine were offered in the rite of Holy Communion, was not sufficient to accommodate them.

The majority of cathedrals and large churches of the Western European tradition have a high wide nave with a lower aisle separated by an arcade on either side.

The façade or "west front" or in some cases termed the (westwork), is the most ornate part of the exterior, with the processional doors, often three in number, and often richly decorated with sculpture, marble or stone tracery.

The decorative scheme often functions as a Poor Man's Bible, warning the church-goer that, in Biblical terms, the just rewards for his sinful nature is death, and that only through Jesus can forgiveness and redemption be gained.

In Romanesque and Gothic buildings, this is usually a sculptural group, and may entail a whole scene of the Last Judgement with details of souls being weighed and rewarded, or dragged down to Hell by demons.

[32] Secondarily in the Catholic church, and primarily in other Christian denominations, the altar is a table on which is laid the Blessed Sacrament of bread and wine for consecration by a priest prior to use in the rite of Communion.

To this end, many churches have, in their decorative schemes, elements of a Poor Man's Bible, illustrating aspects of the Life of Christ and other related narratives, with the aim of educating the viewer.

[citation needed] The decorative scheme generally culminated at the altar, where there would be a painted altarpiece or sculptured reredos, or it would be framed by a stained glass window, or an apsidal mosaic.

Those at Santa Costanza are similar to mosaics and painted decoration found in public and domestic interiors, being largely geometric or floral, but close examination reveals much Christian symbolism in the choice of motives.

[citation needed] Where churches of Early Christian foundation remain, they are mostly considerably altered, are badly deteriorated and no longer viable, or are roofless ruins, a state which almost overtook San Stefano, prior to a renovation in the 15th century.

The Constantinian Church of the Holy Sepulchre, on the other hand, was demolished under the order of the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim in 1009 so that what stands today is a total reconstruction.

[3][full citation needed] Ravenna, on the eastern coast of Italy, is home to several vast churches of basilica plan dating from the age of the Emperor Justinian (6th century CE).

[45] There is a complex arrangement of curving arcades on several levels which gives a spatial effect only equalled by the Baroque church of Santa Maria della Salute built a thousand years later a few miles north in Venice.

In Venice stands San Marco's, one of the world's best known Byzantine-style churches, dating mainly from the 11th-century and decorated over many centuries but maintaining its centrally planned Byzantine form.

A huge monastery at Cluny, only a fraction of which still exists, was built using a simplified Roman style, stout columns, thick walls, small window openings and semi-circular arches.

[48] Brunelleschi, and others like him, developed a passion for the highly refined style of Roman architecture, in which the forms and decorations followed rules of placement and proportion that had long been neglected.

[49] The greatest cathedral building of the age was the rebuilding of St Peter's Basilica in Rome, the combined work of the architects Bramante, Raphael, Sangallo, Maderno and surmounted by Michelangelo's glorious dome, taller but just one foot narrower than the one that Brunelleschi had built a hundred years earlier in Florence.

These decorations are loosely based on organic objects, particularly seashells and plant growth, but also on other natural forms that have an apparent "organised chaos" such as waves of clouds.

This combines a relatively staid exterior with a dynamic internal plan and an exquisitely orchestrated decorative scheme of painted ceiling and figurative sculpture, all set in a diverse array of gilded Rococo cartouches.

Externally, the façade has a rippling surface, and rises with increasing ornateness to fanciful cupolas that are a hallmark of the churches of Bavaria and much of central and Eastern Europe.

Perhaps most obviously, architects rediscovered the expressive and symbolic value of architectural elements and forms that had evolved through centuries of building—often maintaining meaning in literature, poetry and art—but which had been abandoned by the modern movement.