Üçayak: a forgotten Byzantine church
The imposing ruins of a Byzantine church known as Üçayak, situated in the vicinity of the city of Kırşehir in central Anatolia, on the border between the historic Byzantine provinces of Galatia and Cappadocia, exhibit several conspicuous architectural features. The church presents a combination of a...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
De Gruyter
2014
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| In: |
Byzantinische Zeitschrift
Year: 2014, Volume: 107, Issue: 2, Pages: 725-754 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The imposing ruins of a Byzantine church known as Üçayak, situated in the vicinity of the city of Kırşehir in central Anatolia, on the border between the historic Byzantine provinces of Galatia and Cappadocia, exhibit several conspicuous architectural features. The church presents a combination of an ambiguous twin-church plan, a distinctive building technique, and a remarkably sophisticated exterior design comparable with those of metropolitan buildings. Together these features leave doubts about the sources of the church’s design, its original function and its patronage. In order to ponder the relationship between Üçayak‘s architecture and metropolitan and regional architectural developments, this paper deals with the church’s design and structural type within the framework of the totality of eleventh-century building activities, and examines possible function of the twin-church by comparing it with other regional Byzantine-rite churches. This study brings to the fore the extraordinary place of this church within the context of the regional construction, and establishes its close ties with eleventh-century metropolitan architecture. It also reveals the engagement of a master builder closely familiar with metropolitan practice and suggests that the building activities in the region of Bithynia may have facilitated the transmission of metropolitan architectural concepts further inland. In all probability, Üçayak‘s patron was a member of the local elite, which was customarily connected to the capital. Regarding the possible function of the twin-church of Üçayak, this article argues for the burial and commemorative functions, which often motivated the double arrangement in Cappadocian rock-cut churches. |
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| Item Description: | Die Illustrationen befinden sich sowohl im Textteil (überwiegend Skizzen in schwarz-weiss), als auch am Ende dieses Heft 2 unter "Tafelanhang": farbige Illustrationen "1-10" auf "Tafel I-V" |
| ISSN: | 1868-9027 |
| Reference: | In Beziehung stehendes Werk "Tafelanhang (2014)"
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Byzantinische Zeitschrift
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/bz-2014-0018 |