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Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican Photographic Print Cybriwsky, Alex 16 in. x 20 in. Buy at AllPosters.com Framed Mounted BASILICA (Gr. from Basileus, a king; hence 'Royal Hall')
In Roman times the basilica was a hall of justice and commercial exchange, and occupied a central position. The usual plan, which was probably a Roman development from a Greek temple, was a rectangle twice as long as its width. Either two or four rows of columns, forming three or five aisles, ran the entire length, and above were galleries with upper columns which supported the roof. The entrance was either at the side or at one end. The tribunal at the other end was on a raised dais, generally in a semicircular apse and sometimes separated from the main building by a screen of columns or by a low balustrade.
Ranged round the apse were seats for the assessors with a raised seat in the centre for the praetor, and in front was the altar where sacrifice was offered before the transaction of business. The building, which was generally covered with a wooden roof, was, according to Vitruvius, sometimes open along the sides, and the exterior was extremely simple. Roman basilicas included Trajan's Basilica, the Basilica of Constantine, Rome, adjoining the Forum, the Basilica Julia and the Basilica Aemilia. Wherever Rome established her power a basilica for the administration of justice formed an important feature in her town planning and remains of basilicas have been found at Pompeii, Fano, Trier (Trèves), Tingad and at Silchester in England.
The Roman basilicas served the Early Christians as models for their churches and thus formed a connecting link between buildings of pagan Classic times and those of the Romanesque period. The term basilica was applied to a Christian church as early as the 4th century. A basilican church was usually erected over the burial place of the saint to whom the church was dedicated and immediately above the burial place or crypt was the High Altar covered by a ciborium, also known as a tabernacle or baldachino. There were 31 basilican churches in Rome alone.
The plan of the Christian basilica was as follows: an atrium or open rectangular fore-court surrounded by arcades, formed an imposing approach to the church and in the centre was a fountain for ablutions. Next came the covered narthex between the atrium and the church, which was assigned to penitents. The narthex opened into the nave, lighted by a clerestory of small windows, with an aisle on either side usually half the width of the nave. Sometimes there were two aisles on each side of the nave, as in Old St Peter's, S. Paolo and S. Giovanni in Laterano, Rome. Galleries for women were occasionally placed over the aisles as at S. Agnese and S. Lorenzo, Rome, but otherwise the sexes sat on opposite sides of the nave.
The platform in the pagan basilica was retained in some of the Early Christian churches and was the germ of the medieval transept which later converted the plan into a Latin cross. A choir, which became necessary with the growth of ritual, was enclosed by low screen walls or 'cancelli' (hence chancel), and was provided with an ambo or pulpit on either side, from which the Gospel and Epistle were read. In the semicircular apse or sanctuary the bishop took the central place which had been that of the praetor in the Roman basilica, and the members of the Church Council occupied seats on either side corresponding to those used by the Roman assessors. The altar in front of the apse, which in the basilica had been used for libations to the gods, was now adapted for the celebration of Christian rites and a baldachino, or canopy, supported on marble columns was erected over it. The interior of many Christian basilicas, S. Clemente, S. Agnese, S. Maria Maggiore, Rome, and S. Apollinare Nuove, Ravenna, among others, was enriched by the use of glass mosaic in the semidome of the apse.
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