Architectural Styles
Byzantine
Alt names / subperiods
Timeline
Distinguishing Features
Geographic Presence
Eastern Roman, Paleochristian
330-1453
- Central domes
- cruciform (cross) plan churches with wide central nave & smaller side aisles
- creating verticality and grandeur
- rich mosaics & iconography
- brick structural walls
- stone decorative marble floors & decorative columns
- rounded arches
- clerestory windows to highlight mosaics
- church altars facing east
- defensive features incl thick walls
- towers & battlements
- Eastern Europe
- Eastern Mediterranean
- Turkey
- Greece
- Bulgaria
- Serbia
- Italy
Common Building Types
Landmark buildings
Historic Accommodation Types
Accommodation Examples
- Churches
- Monasteries
- palaces
- Basilicas
- fortifications
- Hagia Sophia Istanbul
- Church of San Vitale Ravenna
- Church of the Holy Apostles Istanbul
- Chora Church Istanbul
- Saint Mark’s Basilica Venice
- Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore Rome
- Monastery of St. Catherine Sinai
- Church of the Nativity Bethlehem
- Church of St. George Thessaloniki
- Church of the Holy Wisdom Nicaea
- Church of St. John the Theologian Patmos
- Xenodocheion / Xenon (dormitory style hospice)
- Monastic guesthouses
- Pandocheion / Pandokeion (private inn / lodging house)
- Kapeleion / Kapēleion (private tavern with lodging)
- Mutatio (short-term changing station)
- Mansio (official roadside station / lodging)
- Roadside shelters / fortified way-stations
- Urban lodging in private houses (host networks)
- Harbour-side lodging (port inns and hostels)
- Caravan-style lodging (eastern frontiers)
- Monastic guesthouses (xenon / xenodocheion) – Hosios Loukas Monastery (Phocis, Greece); St John the Theologian Monastery (Patmos, Greece)
- Church-run hostels/hospices – Samson’s Xenon Constantinople
- Imperial/post-road stations – Mansio on the Via Egnatia
Landmarks
Original Accommodation
Adapted Visitor Accommodation