A Medieval Eye: The Perception of the Exteriors of Byzantine Church Buildings and Their Communication with the Urban Fabric as Guiding Forces in the Design Process

Starting from the Late Antique examples, there is already a tendency to abandon the importance given to featured facades on the exteriors of Byzantine churches. With the developing dominance of the monastic arrangements after the seventh century, unlike the earlier episcopal or parochial examples, the Byzantine church tends to become an independent mass, standing solitary in the middle of a courtyard. This detachment from neighboring service structures leaves compact modules of churches to be perceived from all directions. The non-existence of a single representative facade also brings a disregard for an organized open space (city square) at the entrance. Standing in contrast with the urban space around cathedrals of the West, this urban arrangement shares more features with Islamic examples from the eastern Mediterranean. This study presents some thoughts on how the lives and world definitions of the “other(s),” mainly the Islamic communities, in the medieval Mediterranean may have been sharing similar preferences with the Byzantine users and, through this, examine the exteriors of Byzantine church buildings through their communication with the urban fabric as guiding forces in the design process.