Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (14.2002(2003))

PALMYRA

SYRIA

THE ATRIUM

The paved space in front of the church,
about 21 m wide and 18 m deep, cor-
responds to the entire width of the Church
Street leading into it from the Great Colon-
nade. Such arrangements are extremely rare
in Syrian church architecture. Remarkably,
the square was open at both ends, where the
street entered it from the south and left it to
the north (cf. Fig. 1). This suggests that the
street itself was a part of the ecclesiastical
complex to which our basilica belonged.
The atrium is paved with huge flag-
stones, which form in the middle a sunken
rectangle around which all the column
bases were found in place. There were eight
columns along both sides parallel to the
church fagade and only three at the short
ends, counting the corner columns twice.
While the intercolumnia on the long sides

measured only 2.60 m between column
axes, the short sides conformed to the
width of the earlier street, and the columns
were set in consequence at over 4 m away
from each other. In spite of some differences
in the setting of the columns, which were
all reused and not necessarily coming from
a single ancient monument, it should be
assumed that the atrium as such is a homo-
genous structure, built at one time as part
of the basilica.
This year we were able to raise four
complete shafts (two of them with capitals)
and three partially preserved ones, thus
making the form of the atrium immedi-
ately clear to the visitor (Figs. 5, 6-8). Late
enclosures between columns have been
removed, as was also the wall crossing the
atrium down the middle.


Fig. 5. Raising of the columns in the atrium of Basilica III
(Photo M. Gawlikowski)

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