Speaking about the history of world architecture, one cannot ignore the works of ancient Greek masters, who for centuries served as a source of inspiration to later authors. Temples of Ancient Greece are rightfully considered an example of ancient architecture.
The architecture of ancient Greece: the beginning of the beginnings
The buildings of those times looked quite simple. These were one-story buildings with a clear rectangular shape. The anticipating entrance of the facade was decorated with a colonnade. Typically, the columns were arranged in one row, which had a width equal to the dimensions of the facade.
Buildings that had a colonnade on both sides and a flat ledge of the wall, modern architects attribute to amphiprostyle. Translated from the Greek prefix "amphi" means "two-way."
The era of antiquity: peripters, dipters and pseudo dipters
If we turn to the era of archaism and ancient Greek classics, it is difficult to note that the main type of buildings of ancient architects was the periper. This structure also had a rectangular shape, but a number of columns were belted not from one or even from two sides, but from all four. Later, this technique was adopted by leading world architects.
What happens if the peripter is surrounded not by a single-row colonnade, but by a two-row one? Get dipter! A rectangular building, on all sides of which stretches two rows of columns. Things are even more interesting with the pseudo dipter.
So, if you build a dipter, but instead of two rows of columns laid to it, install only one, then a typical pseudo dipter will come out.
Down with the stereotypes! Monopter
Put on rectangular shapes? Get rid of them! This is exactly what the ancient Greek architects did, creating a rounded structure and calling it a monopter.
In addition to its most unusual form, the method of roofing is of interest. It does not rest on the walls of the building, but on columns that stretch along its entire circumference.
It is worth changing the flat roof, which is vaguely reminiscent of a Vietnamese straw hat , to a puffy dome - as before you already rotunda.
The architecture of ancient Russia
A typical representative of Christian architecture is the Christian temple, the construction of which ends with a dome crowned with a cross. On his example, students of architectural universities study what kind of load the shoulder blade in architecture carries. In addition to her, they study all kinds of portals and apse. As well as drums, which can be both deaf and light, zakomaru, apse, apple, porch, tents and belfries.
Orthodox churches
What is a drum? This is nothing but the base of the dome, which has a cylindrical or multifaceted shape. There are drums in structures erected in the period of the XVI-XVII centuries. There are window cuts in the light drum, but not in the deaf.
The blade in architecture is a flat protrusion in the form of a straight strip having a vertical direction. It can be a functional element of the building, and can perform only a decorative role. Most often, it serves as a means for dividing the general ensemble of the facade of an Orthodox church or church.
Decorative elements of temple architecture
Other decorative elements are pilasters. They are easily confused with a scapula. They also look like a vertical ledge that stretches from top to bottom along the entire wall of the building. However, it has a number of differences. Firstly, pilasters repeat the decoration of the trunk. Secondly, they have identical strokes as the capital. But the blade in architecture is presented separately. Her appearance is much simpler and more concise.
The gap that separates one pilaster from another is called the spindle. Shakes are represented not only in the church architecture of Orthodox Russia, but also in the form of fortresses. In the latter case, they separate one fortress tower from another, essentially being a full-fledged segment of the wall. A typical shovel in the architecture of the Orthodox world from other objects of the temple is also separated by yards.
Traditionally, various arches are of great interest. In addition to the openings of a standard round shape, in architecture there are so-called creeping arches.
Their supports have different heights. Most often, such arches are used for arranging walkways and tunnels under flights of stairs and steps.
The most common decorative elements of architecture are architraves, cornices, friezes. All these are elements of entablature.
Who are mashikuli?
Many architectural terms found in descriptions of Orthodox churches and buildings of Russia are full of foreign names. For example, mashikuli. Behind such an unusual name are ordinary loopholes - narrow openings on the walls.
Most often they are on the upper tier of the walls. Later, having lost their original status and military mission, they managed to maintain an exclusively decorative component. Today mashikuli is just an intricate decoration of facades and fences.
Stacked columns - architectural elements of a rectangular building. Their composition is many outlandish carved components. The highest popularity was enjoyed during the period of patterning, as well as in later periods of ancient Russian architecture. The curb is a convex brickwork, which is located at an angle.
Mediterranean motifs
Some temples have a very unusual shape. Their ensemble uses a variety of props. Do not be surprised, props are also independent architectural terms, which mean a lot of wall options. One of them is the buttress, which is responsible for giving the external walls of the structure more stability, massiveness and solidity.
Decorate the walls of the Orthodox churches of the shell. Most often, together they form a single ornament, the elements of which have a pronounced stylization and are associated with mollusk shells. In Russia, shells were complemented by kokoshniks. Their appearance in Russian architecture dates back to the Naryshkin Baroque period.
Classics of the genre
Cherub - a classic type of decoration of church buildings. Most often, it is the face of a baby. It happens both with feathered wings and without them. Cherubim decorated the buildings built in the Baroque era. Cubular columns look very unusual and fresh. In fact, these are ordinary supports, which expand smoothly in their central part, and then again go on narrowing.
Concluding the review of temple architecture of two eras at once, it is worth mentioning the runners so popular in Russia. They have a triangular shape and are laid out of brick.