Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/m3v76tzoey
Tribute to the research of liturgical ambiences in church architecture from the Zadar area in the periods of Early Christianity and Early Middle Ages
Ana Jordan Knežević
; University of Zadar
Abstract
In this paper, the author presents new knowledge regarding liturgical ambiences in church architecture from the Zadar area in the periods of Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages. In the first part of the paper, the author analyses those ambiences that were usually added to sacral objects during Early Christianity due to being needed in liturgical celebrations. A fact of major interest is that ambiences such as narthexes or pastophories had not been included from the earliest days of church building; they had not been introduced in church architecture before the 6th century. During this period, the number of newly erected baptisteries was almost doubled. New ambiences, such as cathecumenium and consignatorium, were introduced in the 6th century; this was an indication that the liturgical ritual was developed, and that the number of the baptised grew. The second part of the paper tackles liturgical ambiences added to sacral buildings in the Pre-Romanic and Romanic periods. The most comprehensive interventions were made in Zadar’s central basilica of St. Peter, extended in the Pre-Romanic period by pastophories and the crypt, which considerably enlarged the space of its presbytery. In the Pre-Romanic and Romanic periods, side apses often appeared as liturgical ambiences in sacral objects. Simple smaller niches, mainly incorporated into the mass of the sidewalls, occasionally replaced them. The added apses and niches were undoubtedly intended to serve as separate praying sites within the existing churches. Since such smaller ambiences mainly served for liturgy including relics, it may be concluded that their existence was registered following the development of the cult of Christian saints in the Zadar area, that is to say, from the 9th century onwards. Introducing additional praying sites within or next to the existing churches enabled celebrating multiple daily liturgies during the Middle Ages, which was not the case in Late Antiquity.
Keywords
Zadar (Jader); Late Antiquity; Early Middle Ages; liturgical ambiences; Church of Rome; Byzantine church ritual
Hrčak ID:
191087
URI
Publication date:
20.12.2017.
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