Church History: Notable Artists and their Art and Architects and their Architecture (inc. Churches, Paintings, Sculptures, Icons, etc.)

225 - Main Events (All Facts)

• Year in which the first Christian paintings appear in Rome, adorning the catacombs

324 - Archbasilica of St. John Lateran (All Facts)

• Catholic Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome in the city of Rome 

• It serves as the seat of the Pope 

• It was consecrated as a church during the reign of Constantine the Great (date displayed)

• It hosted the Council of Arles

St. Agnes Church “Outside the Walls” (All Facts)

• Church constructed during the reign of Constantine the Great 

St. Sebastian Church “Outside the Walls” (All Facts) 

• Church constructed during the reign of Constantine the Great 

• The church was built over the catacombs of the namesake saint 

Papal Basilica of St. Paul “Outside the Walls” (All Facts) 

• Church constructed during the reign of Constantine the Great 

• The church was built over the burial place of of the namesake saint

330 - Church of the Holy Apostles (All Facts)

• Constructed and consecrated during the reign of Constantine the Great 

335 - Church of the Holy Sepulchre (All Facts)

• Holiest site in Christianity

• It has been an important pilgrimage site for Christians since the fourth century

• Contains both the site where Jesus was crucified at Golgotha and the location of Jesus's empty tomb, where he was buried and resurrected

  • Christ’s tomb on Golgotha was discovered to be on the site of an old temple to Aphrodite 

• Constructed and consecrated during the reign of Constantine the Great 

  • Christians from every corner of the Roman Empire were expected to flock to Jerusalem to see this shrine, the greatest in Christianity 

• Also contained an attached basilica with five aisles and a large atrium 

360 - Old St. Peter’s Basilica (All Facts)

• Located on the Vatican Hill 

• Church that was constructed during the reign of Constantine the Great 

  • It was built over the site of the Circus of Nero 

  • Completed on the date displayed 

  • Demolished in 1505 

Mar Saba (All Facts) 

• Holy Larva (Monastery) founded by St. Sabbas the Sanctified in the 400s

• It is considered one of the world's oldest (almost) continuously inhabited monasteries, and it maintains many of its ancient traditions

548 - 565 - St. Catherine’s Monastery (All Facts)

• Christian monastery located in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt

• It was built by Justinian of the Byzantine Empire

• It enclosed what is claimed to be the area where Moses saw the Burning Bush

• It is the world's oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery

• It was built nearly 5,000 feet above sea level at the foot of Mt. Sinai 

• It was fortified 

• It was decorated with mosaics of the Transfiguration and painted icons 

• Became an anchorage point of Christianity 

360 - 1453 - Hagia Sophia (All Facts)

• Reconstructed and consecrated by Justinian of the Byzantine Empire in 537

• Designed by Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus

• Became the world's largest interior space and among the first to employ a fully pendentive dome

• It is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture"

• Procopius, a Greek Historian under the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, once remarked that the effects of light and space inside the church made it an “ineffable beauty” and he said it seemed as if “radiance is generated within, so great an abundance of light bathes this shrine all around”

Basilica of San Vitale / Church of St. Vitalis (All Facts) 

• Church in Ravenna whose construction begun under Ostrogothic rule by a rich banker

• Its interior was decorated with beautiful mosaics made from thousands of colored glass cubes, which reflected the light and bathed the church in their rich colors, mainly green and gold

• Church which Justinian and Theodora of the Byzantine Empire had stared down from the chancel

Basilica of St. Apollinaris (All Facts)

Vivarium (All Facts)

• Monastery founded by Cassiodorus in southern Italy around 544, which had a biblical studies center and library attached to it

• It became a place where Roman scholars worked on preserving Greek and Latin classical literature

683 - Jarrow Library (All Facts)

685 - Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey (All Facts)

Illuminated Manuscript (All Facts)

• Formally prepared document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations

• Were often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers and liturgical books such as psalters and courtly literature

Abbey of Echternach (All Facts)

• Founded by St. Willibrord

Lindisfarne Monastery (All Facts)

Noirmoutier Abbey (All Facts)

• Sacked by the Vikings in 842

Mandylion (All Facts)

Romanesque (All Facts)

• Roman-inspired style of architecture that came to dominate Christian Europe by 1100

• Style that was derived from the round Roman arch, which it repeats in series to divide church naves and abbey cloisters into bays and in which half-columns were built against flat wall surfaces, with capitals which no longer were in classical Roman styles

• Style characterized by its carved capitals, which appeared on church columns and around the arches of churches throughout England and Europe

  • The carved capitals took the form of demons, dragons, and fabulous monsters such as centaurs (symbolizing drunken lechery, or the basilisk, a mixture of rooster and serpent