Editing Basilica (section)

=== Christian adoption of the basilica form ===
{{See also|Christianised sites}}
[[File:Basilica (arquitetura) PT en.svg|thumb|Structural elements of a gothic basilica.<br />Variations: Where the roofs have a low slope, the [[triforium]] gallery may have own windows or may be missing.|alt=]]

In the 4th century, once the Imperial authorities had decriminalised Christianity with the 313 [[Edict of Milan]], and with the activities of [[Constantine the Great and Christianity|Constantine the Great]] and his mother [[Helena (Empress)|Helena]], Christians were prepared to build larger and more handsome edifices for worship than the furtive meeting-places (such as the [[Cenacle]], [[cave-church]]es, [[house church]]es such as [[Santi Giovanni e Paolo al Celio|that of the martyrs John and Paul]]) they had been using. Architectural formulas for temples were unsuitable due to their pagan associations, and because pagan cult ceremonies and sacrifices occurred outdoors under the open sky in the sight of the gods, with the temple, housing the cult figures and the treasury, as a backdrop. The usable model at hand, when Constantine wanted to memorialise his imperial piety, was the familiar conventional architecture of the basilicas.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Arts/Architec/MiddleAgesArchitectural/EarlyChristianByzantine/BasilicaPlanChurches/BasilicaPlanChurches.htm |title=Basilica Plan Churches |publisher=Cartage.org.lb |access-date=17 February 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112182738/http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Arts/Architec/MiddleAgesArchitectural/EarlyChristianByzantine/BasilicaPlanChurches/BasilicaPlanChurches.htm |archive-date=12 January 2012}}</ref>

There were several variations of the basic plan of the secular basilica, always some kind of rectangular hall, but the one usually followed for churches had a central nave with one aisle at each side and an apse at one end opposite to the main door at the other end. In (and often also in front of) the apse was a raised platform, where the altar was placed, and from where the clergy officiated. In secular building this plan was more typically used for the smaller audience halls of the emperors, governors, and the very rich than for the great public basilicas functioning as law courts and other public purposes.<ref>Syndicus, 40</ref> Constantine built a basilica of this type in his palace complex at Trier, later very easily adopted for use as a church. It is a long rectangle two storeys high, with ranks of arch-headed windows one above the other, without aisles (there was no mercantile exchange in this imperial basilica) and, at the far end beyond a huge arch, the apse in which Constantine held state.

<gallery widths="170" heights="170" class="center" caption="Comparison of cross sections of churches">
File:Basilica, cross-section scheme.png|''Basilica'': The central nave extends to one or two storeys more than the lateral aisles, and it has upper windows.
File:Pseudobasilica.png|'''Pseudo-basilica''' (i.e. ''false basilica''): The central nave extends to an additional storey, but it has no upper windows.
File:Stepped hall church.png|Stepped hall: The vaults of the central nave begin a bit higher than those of the lateral aisles, but there is no additional storey.
File:Hall church central nave wider.png|[[Hall church]]: All vaults are almost on the same level.
File:Aisleless church, lateral chapels.png|[[Aisleless church]] with wallside [[pilaster]]s, a [[barrel-vault]] and upper windows above lateral chapels
</gallery>

==== Development ====
{{multiple image
<!-- Layout parameters -->| align = right
| direction = horizontal
| background color = <!-- box background -->
| total_width = 350 <!-- total width of all the displayed images in pixels (an integer, omit "px" suffix) -->
| caption_align = center
| image1 = Königshofen-Stadtpfarrkirche.jpg
| width1 = <!-- full width of the ORIGINAL UNSCALED image -->
| height1 = <!-- full height of the ORIGINAL UNSCALED image -->
| image2 = Grabfeld_2011_006.jpg
| width2 = 400 <!-- full width of the ORIGINAL UNSCALED image -->
| height2 = <!-- full height of the ORIGINAL UNSCALED image -->
| footer_align = center
| footer = ''Assumption of Mary's'' in [[Bad Königshofen]] ([[Franconia]], [[Germany]]) is a pseudobasilica
}}

Putting an [[altar]] instead of the throne, as was done at Trier, made a church. Basilicas of this type were built in western Europe, Greece, Syria, Egypt, and Palestine, that is, at any [[Early centers of Christianity|early centre of Christianity]]. Good early examples of the architectural basilica include the [[Church of the Nativity]] at [[Bethlehem]] (6th century), the church of St&nbsp;Elias at [[Thessalonica]] (5th century), and the two great basilicas at [[Ravenna]].

The first basilicas with transepts were built under the orders of [[Emperor Constantine]], both in Rome and in his "New Rome", [[Constantinople]]:

<blockquote>Around 380, [[Gregory Nazianzen]], describing the Constantinian [[Church of the Holy Apostles]] at Constantinople, was the first to point out its resemblance to a cross. Because the [[True Cross|cult of the cross]] was spreading at about the same time, this comparison met with stunning success.
:— [[Yvon Thébert]], in Veyne, 1987</blockquote>

Thus, a Christian symbolic theme was applied quite naturally to a form borrowed from civil semi-public precedents. The first great Imperially sponsored Christian basilica is that of [[Basilica of St. John Lateran|St John Lateran]], which was given to the Bishop of Rome by Constantine right before or around the Edict of Milan in 313 and was consecrated in the year 324. In the later 4th century, other Christian basilicas were built in Rome: [[Santa Sabina]], and [[Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls|St Paul's Outside the Walls]] (4th century), and later [[Basilica di San Clemente|St Clement]] (6th century).

A Christian basilica of the 4th or 5th century stood behind its entirely enclosed [[Courtyard|forecourt]] ringed with a colonnade or arcade, like the stoa or [[peristyle]] that was its ancestor or like the [[cloister]] that was its descendant. This forecourt was entered from outside through a range of buildings along the public street. This was the architectural ground-plan of [[Old St. Peter's Basilica|St. Peter's Basilica]] in Rome, until in the 15th century it was demolished to make way for a modern church built to a new plan.

In most basilicas, the central nave is taller than the aisles, forming a row of windows called a clerestory. Some basilicas in the [[Caucasus]], particularly those of [[Armenia]] and [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], have a central nave only slightly higher than the two aisles and a single pitched roof covering all three. The result is a much darker interior. This plan is known as the "oriental basilica", or "pseudobasilica" in central Europe. A peculiar type of basilica, known as [[three-church basilica]], was developed in early medieval Georgia, characterised by the central nave which is completely separated from the aisles with solid walls.<ref name="ELL">{{cite book |last1=Loosley Leeming |first1=Emma |title=Architecture and Asceticism: Cultural Interaction between Syria and Georgia in Late Antiquity |date=2018 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-37531-4 |pages=115–121 |url=https://brill.com/view/title/38209?lang=en |series=Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity, Volume: 13}}</ref>

Gradually, in the [[Early Middle Ages]] there emerged the massive [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] churches, which still kept the fundamental plan of the basilica.

In [[First Bulgarian Empire|Medieval Bulgaria]] the [[Great Basilica, Pliska|Great Basilica]] was finished around 875. The architectural complex in [[Pliska]], the first capital of the [[First Bulgarian Empire]], included a [[cathedral]], an [[archbishop]]'s palace and a monastery.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://fakti.bg/kultura-art/141654-vazstanovavaneto-na-golamata-bazilika-oznachava-pamet-rodolubie-i-turizam|title=Възстановяването на Голямата базилика означава памет, родолюбие и туризъм}}</ref> The basilica was one of the greatest [[Christianity|Christian]] [[cathedral]]s in Europe of the time, with an area of {{convert|2920|m2|sqft}}. The still in use [[Church of Saint Sophia, Ohrid|Church of Saint Sophia]] in [[Ohrid]] is another example from Medieval Bulgaria.

In [[Romania]], the word for church both as a building and as an institution is ''[[biserică]]'', derived from the term basilica.

In the [[United States]] the style was copied with variances. An American church built imitating the architecture of an Early Christian basilica, [[St Mary's German Church|St. Mary's (German) Church]] in [[Pennsylvania]], was demolished in 1997.

<gallery widths="220" heights="150px">
File:Old St Peter's Basilica, Rome, about the year 1450 restored from ancient authorities.jpg|[[Old Saint Peter's Basilica|Old St&nbsp;Peter's, Rome]], as the 4th-century basilica had developed by the mid-15th century, in a 19th-century reconstruction
File:Basilica of St. John Lateran (5790154828).jpg|[[Lateran basilica|St John in the Lateran]] is both an architectural and an ecclesiastical basilica.
File:Kloster Bursfelde Westkirche.jpg|[[Romanesque art|Romanesque]] basilica of nowadays [[Evangelical Church in Germany|Lutheran]] [[Bursfelde Abbey]] in [[Germany]]
File:Chester Cathedral (7251396712).jpg|[[Chester Cathedral]] in [[England]], a [[Gothic style]] basilica
File:Nuremberg - St. Sebald church.JPG|[[St. Sebaldus Church, Nuremberg|St. Sebald's]] in [[Nuremberg]] has a basilical nave and a hall choir.
File:14-01-22-palma-de-mallorca-018.jpg|[[Palma Cathedral]] on [[Mallorca]] in [[Spain]] has windows on three levels, one above the aisles, one above the file of chapels and one in the chapels.
File:St Mary's German Church interior December 1987.jpg|A rare American church built imitating the architecture of an Early Christian basilica, [[St Mary's German Church|St. Mary's (German) Church]] in [[Pennsylvania]], now demolished
File:Cathedral Saint Alexander Nevsky (23997180108).jpg|[[Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia|Alexander Nevsky Cathedral]] in [[Sofia]]
</gallery>