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In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name to the basilica architectural form.
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (Italian: Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica (Latin: Basilica Sancti Petri; Italian: Basilica di San Pietro [baˈziːlika di sam ˈpjɛːtro]), is a church of the Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City, an independent microstate enclaved within the city of Rome, Italy.
Floorplan of San Lorenzo in Damaso, a basilica in Rome. It is built in the basilica style: a rectangular building with a nave flanked by longitudinal aisles. Basilicas are Catholic church buildings that have a designation, conferring special privileges, given by the Pope. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches.
The meaning of "basilica" in architecture is discussed below; in the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical sense, a "basilica" is a title awarded by the pope, head of the Catholic Church, and recipient churches are accordingly afforded certain privileges.
An important feature of the Roman basilica was that at either end it had a projecting exedra, or apse, a semicircular space roofed with a half-dome. This was where the magistrates sat to hold court. It passed into the church architecture of the Roman world and was adapted in different ways as a feature of cathedral architecture.
The architecture is a synthesis of the Romanesque and Gothic styles, and established many of the typical characteristics of Italian Gothic architecture. As originally built, both upper and lower churches had a simple cruciform plan with an aisle-less nave of four square bays, a square crossing, a transept that projected by half a bay on each ...
The Basilica of Saint-Denis (French: Basilique royale de Saint-Denis, now formally known as the Basilique-cathédrale de Saint-Denis [1]) is a large former medieval abbey church and present cathedral in the commune of Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris.
The architecture of Northern Italy has features in common with French and German Romanesque. [2] The architecture of Southern Italy and Sicily was influenced by both Norman and Islamic architecture. [2] Building stone was available in mountainous regions, while brick was employed for most building in river valleys and plains.