Editing Church (building) (section)

===Antiquity===
[[File:Church of Saint Simeon Stylites 01.jpg|thumb|South facade of the [[Church of Saint Simeon Stylites]] in Aleppo, Syria, is considered to be one of the oldest surviving ruins of a church building in the world.]]
{{Further|List of oldest church buildings}}
The earliest archeologically identified Christian church is a [[house church]] (''domus ecclesiae''), the [[Dura-Europos church]], founded between 233 AD and 256 AD.<ref name="Snyder 2003 128"/>

In the second half of the third century AD, the first purpose-built halls for Christian worship (''aula ecclesiae'') began to be constructed. Many of these structures were destroyed during the [[Diocletianic Persecution]] in the early 4th century. Even larger and more elaborate churches began to appear during the reign of Emperor [[Constantine the Great]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hlqUCgAAQBAJ&q=early+church+buildings&pg=PT70 |title=The Contemporary Church and the Early Church: Case Studies in Ressourcement |date=February 2010 |publisher=Pickwick Publications |isbn=978-1606088999 |editor-last=Hartog |editor-first=Paul}} (Chapter 3)</ref>