Rotunda (architecture)

They include the Tholos of Delphi, the Philippeion at Olympia, a small memorial to the family of Philip of Macedon, and a large building at the Sanctuary of Asclepius, Epidaurus.

[4] Ashoka also built the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya circa 250 BC, possibly also a circular structure, next to the Bodhi tree.

[6] The Pisa Baptistery is the outstanding late medieval rotunda, taking from 1152 to 1363 to build, and including Romanesque, Gothic and classicizing or Proto-Renaissance elements.

The rotunda with columns was revived in one of the most influential buildings in Renaissance architecture, the Tempietto in a courtyard of the church of San Pietro in Montorio in Rome.

It is a small building whose innovation, as far as Western Europe was concerned, was to use the tholos form as the base for a dome above; this may have reflected a Byzantine structure in Jerusalem over the tomb of Christ.

This pairing of tholos, now called a drum or tholobate, and dome became extremely popular raised high above main structures which were often based on the Roman temple.

These round churches can be found in great number in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia (particularly Dalmatia), Austria, Bavaria, Germany, and the Czech Republic.

According to the research and radiocarbon dating of plaster, Rotunda of st. George in Nitrianska Blatnica was built sometimes around the year 830, what makes it one of the oldest still standing buildings in the area of Central Europe.

Rotundas of six apses, a most interesting form, are found at Karcsa, Kiszombor in Hungary, at Horjany in Ukraine and several places in Armenia (Aragatz, Bagaran, Bagnayr, Botshor, Kiagmis Alti).

Several Armenian built rotunda churches have sixfold arched central apsis, i.e. at Aragatz, Bagaran, Bagnayr, Botshor, Kiagmis Alti in Armenia.

At the same time eightfold arched central buildings (rotunda) are also frequently occurring in Armenia: Ani, Irind, Varzhahan.