DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32867#0052
22
NORTHERN CENTRAL SYRIA
A decided inferiority is noticeable in all kinds of structures later than the second
century in the more northern country when compared with those of the more southern,
with one exception, that is, in the churches. The basilicas of the Djebel Riha were
built for the most part in the fourth century and are plain and severe in the extreme,
while those of the more northern region belong almost exclusively to the fifth and
sixth centuries, a period during which the church edifice developed into a building of
great beauty and richness of detail. Baptisteries, which are quite rare in the Djebel
Riha, being generally connected only with large and important churches, are very
common in the district of the Djebel Barisha, where they are attached even to the
smaller churches; and we occasionally find two or more in one town.
But the tomb structures of the northern mountain country cannot be compared
with those of the Djebel Riha. The people of the Djebel Barisha, to be sure,
had types of their own that compare favorably with the smaller monuments of
the Djebel Riha; but the splendid mausoleums of the south were unknown in
the northern mountains. The same thing nray be said of the domestic architecture;
for, though the northern section provides styles of houses not to be found in
the Djebel Riha, there are no private buildings there that approach the villas
of Ruweha or Khirbit Hass, either in size or in magnificence. Villas there are, but
much simpler in every respect than the great dwellings of the south. But it should
be noted that, while many of the houses of the north are small, a greater amount of
pains was spent upon them to make them beautiful than was ever expended upon the
smaller houses of the south. In the north the small block house is frequently found
with its doorway and windows richly ornamented, but in the south such houses are
severely plain.
And this brings us to the question of the differences in style that exist in the archi-
tecture of two districts so closely situated. These differences are not manifest in the
plan and arrangement of the buildings so much as in the treatment of their details.
During the fourth century there was greater similarity between the details of archi-
tecture in the two regions; but as centuries passed, two distinct schools seem to have
developed. Ecclesiastically, and probably politically, there were two separate centers,
Antioch for the north and Apamea for the south ; this, in a way, might point to
the existence of two separate art centers; but why should Antioch as an art center
produce monuments inferior to those produced by Apamea ? It would seem as if the
matter of wealth must have influenced the situation; that the people of the north had
not only a different art center from those of the south, but were poorer, and, for that
reason, less able to work out the fullest expression of their art, except in their churches,
the funds for which may have been augmented by the metropolitan portion of the
see; for in the north we find not only one of the finest church edifices in Syria, that
at Kalb Lauzeh, but the most magnificent ruin of early Christian architecture in the
world — the Church of St. Simeon Stylites at Kal'at Sim'an. This latter was, of
NORTHERN CENTRAL SYRIA
A decided inferiority is noticeable in all kinds of structures later than the second
century in the more northern country when compared with those of the more southern,
with one exception, that is, in the churches. The basilicas of the Djebel Riha were
built for the most part in the fourth century and are plain and severe in the extreme,
while those of the more northern region belong almost exclusively to the fifth and
sixth centuries, a period during which the church edifice developed into a building of
great beauty and richness of detail. Baptisteries, which are quite rare in the Djebel
Riha, being generally connected only with large and important churches, are very
common in the district of the Djebel Barisha, where they are attached even to the
smaller churches; and we occasionally find two or more in one town.
But the tomb structures of the northern mountain country cannot be compared
with those of the Djebel Riha. The people of the Djebel Barisha, to be sure,
had types of their own that compare favorably with the smaller monuments of
the Djebel Riha; but the splendid mausoleums of the south were unknown in
the northern mountains. The same thing nray be said of the domestic architecture;
for, though the northern section provides styles of houses not to be found in
the Djebel Riha, there are no private buildings there that approach the villas
of Ruweha or Khirbit Hass, either in size or in magnificence. Villas there are, but
much simpler in every respect than the great dwellings of the south. But it should
be noted that, while many of the houses of the north are small, a greater amount of
pains was spent upon them to make them beautiful than was ever expended upon the
smaller houses of the south. In the north the small block house is frequently found
with its doorway and windows richly ornamented, but in the south such houses are
severely plain.
And this brings us to the question of the differences in style that exist in the archi-
tecture of two districts so closely situated. These differences are not manifest in the
plan and arrangement of the buildings so much as in the treatment of their details.
During the fourth century there was greater similarity between the details of archi-
tecture in the two regions; but as centuries passed, two distinct schools seem to have
developed. Ecclesiastically, and probably politically, there were two separate centers,
Antioch for the north and Apamea for the south ; this, in a way, might point to
the existence of two separate art centers; but why should Antioch as an art center
produce monuments inferior to those produced by Apamea ? It would seem as if the
matter of wealth must have influenced the situation; that the people of the north had
not only a different art center from those of the south, but were poorer, and, for that
reason, less able to work out the fullest expression of their art, except in their churches,
the funds for which may have been augmented by the metropolitan portion of the
see; for in the north we find not only one of the finest church edifices in Syria, that
at Kalb Lauzeh, but the most magnificent ruin of early Christian architecture in the
world — the Church of St. Simeon Stylites at Kal'at Sim'an. This latter was, of