DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32867#0438
CHAPTER XIII
CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE IN THE DJEBEL
iiaurAn
ARCHITECTURE in general, as we have seen, had reached an advanced state of
TT decline in the Hauran during the century which preceded the imperial sanction of
Christianity. The influence of the new religion upon the art of the Arabian province,
and especially upon architecture, seems to have been the reverse of what it was in the
region round about Antioch. In the Hauran the decline went on, and the science of
construction seems to have been the only feature of the old architecture that was per-
petuated in the buildings of the church. Proportions were forgotten, while ornament,
though in some cases borrowed from pagan buildings and crudely converted by a few
strokes of the chisel, was generally dispensed with. In the domain of construction a
single feature was introduced that did not find representation in the churches of the
north ; this was the dome of concrete. Concrete had been introduced into the auran
at the end of the Roman period, and the dome had been used here in pagan buildings ;
but we have no evidence that concrete was ever employed by the architects of North-
ern Central Syria, although they constructed domes and vaults above tombs, and built
churches and other edifices which were designed on a central plan. We cannot be-
lieve, however, that this form of construction was common, even in the Christian
edifices of the Hauran ; only two Christian monuments of dome construction are pre-
served, and one of these is sadly dilapidated. Wooden construction was not unknown
here, as may be judged from M. de Vogiie’s description of a basilical church 1 with co-
lumnar supports and triple apse at Suweda. This building has disappeared com-
pletely, having been taken down to build the barracks which now dominate the ruins.
The most common form of church edifice in thc Hauran seems to have been built
after the fashion peculiar to the architecture that had been employed for two centuries
or more in pagan basilicas of the Hauran, and for even longer, perhaps, in the
domestic architecture of the inhabitants. This fashion, which has been described on
page 314, is the one in which the nave was divided by several transverse walls which
were pierced with one great and several small arches and supportecl the heavy slabs
of the roof. Churches of this type are found at Tafha, Kanawat, ‘Atil, and Shakka,—
1 La Syrie Centrale, Pl. 19.
406
CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE IN THE DJEBEL
iiaurAn
ARCHITECTURE in general, as we have seen, had reached an advanced state of
TT decline in the Hauran during the century which preceded the imperial sanction of
Christianity. The influence of the new religion upon the art of the Arabian province,
and especially upon architecture, seems to have been the reverse of what it was in the
region round about Antioch. In the Hauran the decline went on, and the science of
construction seems to have been the only feature of the old architecture that was per-
petuated in the buildings of the church. Proportions were forgotten, while ornament,
though in some cases borrowed from pagan buildings and crudely converted by a few
strokes of the chisel, was generally dispensed with. In the domain of construction a
single feature was introduced that did not find representation in the churches of the
north ; this was the dome of concrete. Concrete had been introduced into the auran
at the end of the Roman period, and the dome had been used here in pagan buildings ;
but we have no evidence that concrete was ever employed by the architects of North-
ern Central Syria, although they constructed domes and vaults above tombs, and built
churches and other edifices which were designed on a central plan. We cannot be-
lieve, however, that this form of construction was common, even in the Christian
edifices of the Hauran ; only two Christian monuments of dome construction are pre-
served, and one of these is sadly dilapidated. Wooden construction was not unknown
here, as may be judged from M. de Vogiie’s description of a basilical church 1 with co-
lumnar supports and triple apse at Suweda. This building has disappeared com-
pletely, having been taken down to build the barracks which now dominate the ruins.
The most common form of church edifice in thc Hauran seems to have been built
after the fashion peculiar to the architecture that had been employed for two centuries
or more in pagan basilicas of the Hauran, and for even longer, perhaps, in the
domestic architecture of the inhabitants. This fashion, which has been described on
page 314, is the one in which the nave was divided by several transverse walls which
were pierced with one great and several small arches and supportecl the heavy slabs
of the roof. Churches of this type are found at Tafha, Kanawat, ‘Atil, and Shakka,—
1 La Syrie Centrale, Pl. 19.
406