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... ple did not meet in the temples to worship, as if it were a church. And last, that all gods demanded they be satisfied by sacrifice, and so sacrifices were made at the temples. For this there was a great altar outside the east porch of every temple.
Some temples only had a porch for the altar and a hall leading to it, while others were much complicated. The Parthenon is one temple that is very famous and beautiful, but also very basic in its construction. Built between 447 and 438 BC, it was the first building to be constructed on the widely know Acropolis. The Parthenon is called octo style peripteral because it has eight columns in the front and the back of it and is surrounded by a colonnade or peristyle. Inside, it is constructed as most temples were.
The central chamber, or cella, faced east, with a wood figure of Athene covered in gold and ivory in it. There was a porno, or porch, at the east end and a opisthodomus, or porch, at the west end. At the back of the temple is a chamber called the Parthenon, or chamber of the Virgin, which was used as a treasury and held the sacrifices. This layout was very common among temples of that period. One rather famous temple that was very complicated, was The Great Palace of Knossos, also known as just Knossos. It began a town with buildings in blocks around a square, or court, and grew into an extremely large palace.
The process of becoming a palace was that of the gradual condensation of all the buildings under one roof, except for the court. Even the streets were covered, making them into corridors. The layout of Knossos had long, narrow chambers on the west side, with the shrines and ceremonial rooms on that side of the court. The luxurious living spaces were at the southeast side of the court and the service rooms and some small industries were aligned with them in the northeast side.
This was truly a great palace. As we have seen there were different styles and different layouts of Greek temples, but they were used for the same thing. Also, we have seen that the Greeks made amazing buildings, that were carefully planned and skillfully created. Perhaps the architects of that day were the true geniuses of Greek culture, not the philosophers.
Roman Temples were very similar to those of the Greeks. The architecture of the Roman Empire, spanning the period from 4 th century to B. C. 5 century A. D.
They were built in the sacred area called teens and were surrounded by a colonnaded walk way. There was a porch in front of the entrance where an alter was placed and sacrifices were offered. Leading up to the alter, there was a great staircase flanked with walls on both sides. Like the Greeks there were columns surrounding the temple yet these columns were usually attached to the outer walls of the temple instead of the interior being open. Inside the temple there was a single room called the cella, decorated with coloured marbles. Alcoves had been cut into the walls where statues could be placed.
In some cases, a statue of the god that the temple was dedicated to was placed on a raised platform at the end of the cella. In contrast to the linear emphasis of Greek architecture, Roman architecture is noted for its development of the rounded form. The Romans' mastery of concrete, used in combination with bricks, freed the orders from rounded forms as the arch, vault, and dome. Arches and vaults were first employed in utilitarian structures, for example, bridges and aqueducts. Later they were used, together with the dome, in private and public buildings as a means of extending and diversifying the interior space. Roman building types include the basilica, an oblong meeting hall with vaulted roof, often colonnaded, the there or bath houses with their complex spatial layout, and the triumphal arch, a purely ornamental structure.
Rome has the richest collection of public building, especially the Pantheon, built between 27 BC and A. D. 124, with its enormous concrete dome. It was originally built by Marcus Agrippa but was later rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian. The name 'Pantheon' means all gods for this building was dedicated to seven different duties. The temple stands at on end of a large colonnaded courtyard and has a normal portico (porch) in the front.
Inside, the cella is round with a diameter of 140 ft. the floor is laid with coloured marble and statues of all seven gods line the walls. There are two specials places of honour for Venus and Mars, the protecting duties of Africa's family. At the top of the dome is a circular opening called an oculus which provides the only light.
Other Roman buildings are the Colosseum A. D. 70 - 80, numerous temples, and there such as those of Caracall, about A. D. 215 onwards. The ruins of Pompeii at the foot of Mount Vesuvius provide the most complete view of a Roman city, which was typically planned as a series of interlinked public spaces. Dwellings tend to look inwards towards an open atrium (inner court) and peristyle (colonnade surrounding the court). Other important monuments outside Rome include the amphitheatre in Verona, about A.
D. 290, and Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, about A. D. 118 - 134. The Hadrian's villa shows examples of axial symmetry, its use of curved as well as rectilinear interior spaces, and its numerous vistas. Other monuments in the Roman Empire are the beautifully preserved temple known as the Maison Carree in Nimes, France, 16 BC; the aqueduct, the Pont du Gard, near Nimes, about 14 BC; the Diocletian's Palace in Split, Croatia, 300 BC. Greek temples, with their simple style, had three different, refined architectural styles which were best illustrated in the Parthenon. Rome then took that style and expanded it for their own temples, adding details, arches and domes.
They then used those techniques to make churches later in their history, many of which have survived to today. In fact, those styles are still used.
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Research essay sample on Greek And Roman Architecture
