Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the site of Christ’s Resurrection. The
project also fulfilled the figurative words Christ himself said to
the first disciple: “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
church” (Matt. 16:18). Peter was Rome’s first bishop and also the
head of the long line of popes that extends to the present.
The plan and elevation of Old Saint Peter’s resemble those of
Roman basilicas and audience halls, such as the Basilica Ulpia (FIG.
10-43,no. 4) in the Forum of Trajan and Constantine’s own Aula
Palatina (FIGS. 10-79and 10-80) at Trier, rather than the design of
any Greco-Roman temple. The Christians, understandably, did not
want their houses of worship to mimic the look of pagan shrines,
but practical considerations also contributed to their shunning the
form of pagan temples. Greco-Roman temples housed only the cult
statue of the deity. All rituals took place outside at open-air altars.
The classical temple, therefore, could have been adapted only with
great difficulty as a building that accommodated large numbers of
people within it. The Roman basilica, in contrast, was ideally suited
as a place for congregation.
Like Roman basilicas, Old Saint Peter’s had a wide central nave
(FIG. 11-9,no. 1) with flanking aisles (FIG. 11-9,no. 2) and an apse
(FIG. 11-9,no. 3) at the end. But unlike pagan basilicas, which some-
times had doorways on one long side, opening onto an aisle (FIG.
10-43,no. 4), all Early Christian basilicas had a pronounced longitu-
dinalaxis. Worshipers entered the basilica through a narthex (FIG.
11-9,no. 5), or vestibule. When they emerged in the 300-foot-long
nave, they had an unobstructed view of the altar in the apse, framed by
the chancel arch dividing the nave from the transept (FIG. 11-9,no. 4).
The transept,or transverse aisle, an area perpendicular to the nave
between the nave and apse, was a special feature of the Constantin-
ian church. It housed the relics of Saint Peter that hordes of pilgrims
came to see. (Relics are the body parts, clothing, or objects associated
with a saint or Christ himself; see “Pilgrimages and the Cult of
Relics,” Chapter 17, page 432.) The transept became a standard de-
sign element in Western churches only much later, when it also took
on, with the nave and apse, the symbolism of the Christian cross.
Saint Peter’s basilica also had an open colonnaded courtyard in front
of the narthex, very much like the forum proper in the Forum of
Trajan (FIG. 10-43,no. 5) but called an atrium(FIG. 11-9,no. 6), like
the central room in a Roman private house (FIG. 10-16,no. 2).
Unlike pagan temples, Old Saint Peter’s was not adorned with
lavish exterior sculptures. Its brick walls were as austere as those of
the Aula Palatina (FIG. 10-79). Inside, however, were frescoes and
mosaics, marble columns (taken from pagan buildings, as was cus-
tomary at the time), and costly ornaments. The Liber pontificalis,or
Book of the Pontiffs (Popes), compiled by an anonymous sixth-
century author, lists Constantine’s gifts to Old Saint Peter’s. They in-
cluded altars, chandeliers, candlesticks, pitchers, goblets, and plates
fashioned of gold and silver and sometimes embellished with jewels
and pearls, as well as jeweled altar cloths for use in the Mass and gold
foil to sheathe the vault of the apse.^1 A huge marble baldacchino
(domical canopy over an altar), supported by four spiral porphyry
columns, marked the spot of Saint Peter’s tomb.
SANTA SABINA Some idea of the character of the timber-
roofed interior of Old Saint Peter’s can be gleaned from the interior
(FIG. 11-10) of Santa Sabina in Rome. Santa Sabina, built a century
later, is a basilican church of much more modest proportions, but it
still retains its Early Christian character. The Corinthian columns of
its nave arcade(a series of arches supported by columns separating
the nave from the aisles) produce a steady rhythm that focuses all at-
tention on the chancel arch and the apse, which frame the altar. In
Santa Sabina, as in Old Saint Peter’s, the nave is drenched with light
from the clerestory windows piercing the thin upper wall beneath the
timber roof. The same light would have illuminated the frescoes and
mosaics that commonly adorned the nave and apse of Early Chris-
tian churches. Outside, Santa Sabina has plain brick walls. They
closely resemble the exterior of Trier’s Aula Palatina (FIG. 10-79).
SANTA COSTANZAThe rectangular basilican church design
was long the favorite of the Western Christian world, but Early
Christian architects also adopted another classical architectural type:
the central-plan building. The type is so named because the build-
ing’s parts are of equal or almost equal dimensions around the cen-
ter. Roman central-plan buildings were usually round or polygonal
domed structures. Byzantine architects developed this form toArchitecture and Mosaics 29911-10Interior of Santa Sabina, Rome,
Italy, 422–432.
Early Christian basilican churches like
Santa Sabina were timber roofed and
illuminated by clerestory windows.
The Corinthian columns of the nave
focused attention on the apse, which
framed the altar.11-10AWest
doors, Santa
Sabina, Rome,
ca. 432.