Old St. Peter's, Rome, as the 4th century basilica had developed by the late 15th century, in a 19th century reconstruction
The
Latin word 'basilica' (derived from
Greek, ''
Basiliké Stoà'', Royal ''
Stoa''), was originally used to describe a
Roman public building (as in
Greece, mainly a
tribunal), usually located at the center of a Roman town (
forum). In Hellenistic cities, public basilicas appeared in the
2nd century BC.
After the
Roman Empire became officially
Christian, the term came by extension to refer to a large and important
church that has been given special ceremonial rites by the
Pope. Thus the word retains two senses today, one architectural and the other ecclesiastical.
Architecture
In architecture, the Roman 'basilica' was a large roofed hall erected for transacting business and disposing of legal matters. Such buildings usually contained interior
colonnades that divided the space, giving aisles or arcaded spaces at one or both sides, with an
apse at one end (or less often at each end), where the magistrates sat, often on a slightly raised dais. The central aisle tended to be wide and was higher than the flanking aisles, so that light could penetrate through the
clerestory windows.
The oldest known basilica, the
Basilica Porcia, was built in Rome in
184 BC by
Cato the Elder during the time he was
censor. Other early examples include the one at Pompeii (late
2nd century BC).
Probably the most splendid Roman basilica is the one constructed for traditional purposes during the reign of the pagan emperor
Maxentius and finished by
Constantine after 313. As early as the time of Augustus, a public basilica for transacting business had been part of any settlement that considered itself a city, used like the late medieval covered markethouses of northern Europe (where the meeting room, for lack of urban space, was set ''above'' the arcades).
Basilicas in the Roman Forum
★ Basilica Porcia: first basilica built in Rome (
184 BC), erected on the personal initiative and financing of the censor Marchus Porcius Cato as an official building for the
tribunes of the plebs
★
Aemilian Basilica, built by the censor Aemilius Lepidus in
179 BC
★
Julian Basilica, completed by
Augustus
★ Basilica Opimia, erected probably by the consul Lucius Opimius in 121 BC, at the same time that he restored the
temple of Concord (Platner, Ashby 1929)
★ Basilica Sempronia, built by the censor
Marcus Sempronius Gracchus in
169 BC
★
Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine (
308 - after
313)
Palace basilicas
In the early Imperial period, a basilica for large audiences also became a feature in the palaces. In the
3rd century AD, the governing elite appeared less easily in the forums. "They now tended to dominate their cities from opulent palaces and country villas, set a little apart from traditional centers of public life. Rather than retreats from public life, however, these residences were the forum made private." (Peter Brown, in Paul Veyne, 1987). Seated in the tribune of his basilica the great man would meet his dependent ''clientes'' early every morning.
A private basilica excavated at
Bulla Regia (Tunisia), in the "House of the Hunt," dates from the first half of the
4th century. Its reception or audience hall is a long rectangular nave-like space, flanked by dependent rooms that mostly also open into one another, ending in a circular apse, with matching transept spaces. The "crossing" of the two axes was emphasized with clustered columns.
Christianising the Roman basilica
In the
4th century, Christians were prepared to build larger and more handsome edifices for worship than the furtive meeting places they had been using. Architectural formulas for temples were unsuitable, not simply for their pagan associations, but because pagan cult and sacrifices occurred outdoors under the open sky in the sight of the gods, with the temple, housing the cult figures and the treasury, as a backdrop. The usable model at hand, when Constantine wanted to memorialize his imperial piety, was the familiar conventional architecture of the basilicas
[1]. These had a center nave with one aisle at each side and an apse at one end: on this raised platform sat the bishop and priests. Constantine built a basilica of this type in his palace complex at
Trier, later very easily adopted for use as a church. It is a long rectangle two stories high, with ranks of arch-headed windows one above the other, without aisles (no mercantile exchange in this imperial basilica) and at the far end, beyond a huge arch, the apse in which Constantine held state. Exchange the throne for an altar, as was done at Trier, and you had a church. Basilicas of this type were built not only in Western Europe but in Greece, Syria, Egypt, and Palestine. Good early examples of the architectural basilica are the
Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem (
6th century), the church of St Elias at Thessalonica (
5th century), and the two great basilicas at
Ravenna.
The first basilicas with
transepts were built under the orders of
Emperor Constantine, both in Rome and his "New Rome," Constantinople:
:"Around
380,
Gregory Nazianzen, describing the Constantinian Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople, was the first to point out its resemblance to a cross. Because the cult of the
cross was spreading at about the same time, this comparison met with stunning successs." (Yvon Thébert, in Veyne, 1987)
Thus a Christian symbolic theme was applied quite naturally to form borrowed from civil semi-public precedents. In the later 4th century other Christian basilicas were built in Rome:
Santa Sabina, St John Lateran and St Paul's-outside-the-Walls (4th century), and later San Clemente (
6th century).
A Christian basilica of the 4th or 5th century stood behind its entirely enclosed forecourt ringed with a colonnade or arcade, like the
stoa or
peristyle that was its ancestor or like the
cloister that was its descendant. This forecourt was entered from outside through a range of buildings along the public street. This was the architectural groundplan of
St Peter's Basilica in Rome, until first the forecourt, then all of it was swept away in the
15th century to make way for a great modern church on a new plan.
In most basilicas the central nave is taller than the aisles, forming a row of windows called a
clerestory. Some basilicas in the Near East, particularly those of
Georgia and
Armenia, have a central nave only slightly higher than the two aisles and a single pitched roof covering all three. The result is a much darker interior. This plan is known as the "oriental basilica."
Famous existing examples of churches constructed in the ancient basilica style include:
★ The church at
Saint Catherine's Monastery,
Mount Sinai
★ The
Basilica of San Vitale in
Ravenna.
Gradually in the early Middle Ages there emerged the massive
Romanesque churches, which still retained the fundamental plan of the basilica.
Ecclesiastical basilica
thumb
The Early Christian purpose-built basilica was the
cathedral basilica of the
bishop, on the model of the semi-public secular basilicas, and its growth in size and importance signalled the gradual transfer of civic power into episcopal hands, underway in the fifth century. Basilicas in this sense are divided into classes, the major ("greater"), and the minor basilicas, i.e., three other
patriarchal and several pontifical minor basilicas in Italy, and over 1,400 lesser basilicas on all continents.
As of
March 26,
2006, there were no less than 1,476 basilicas, of which the majority were in Europe (526 in Italy alone, including all those of elevated status; 166 in France, 96 in Poland, 94 in Spain, 69 in Germany, 27 in Austria, 23 in Belgium, 13 in the Czech Republic, 12 in Hungary, 11 in the Netherlands, less than ten in many other countries), many in the Americas (58 in the U.S., 47 in Brazil, 41 in Argentina, 27 in Mexico, 25 in Colombia, 21 in Canada, 13 in Venezuela, 12 in Peru, et cetera), and fewer in Asia (14 in India, 12 in the Philippines, nine in the
Holy Land, some other countries one or two), Africa (several countries one or two) and Oceania (Australia 4, Guam one).
The '
privileges' attached to the status of basilica, which is conferred by
Papal Brief, include a certain precedence before other churches, the right of the ''
conopaeum'' (a
baldachin resembling an umbrella; also called ''umbraculum'', ''ombrellino'', ''papilio'', ''sinicchio'', etc.) and the bell (''
tintinnabulum''), which are carried side by side in procession at the head of the clergy on state occasions, and the
cappa magna which is worn by the
canons or secular members of the
collegiate chapter when assisting at the
Divine Office.
Churches designated as patriarchal basilicas, in particular, possess a papal
throne and a papal
high altar from which no one may celebrate Mass without the pope's permission.
Numerous basilicas are notable
shrines, often even receiving significant
pilgrimage, especially among the many that were built above a
Confession (Burial Place of a Martyr).
Major basilicas
To this class belong just four great Papal churches of Rome, which among other distinctions have a special "
holy door" and to which a visit is always prescribed as one of the conditions for gaining the
Roman Jubilee. Pope Benedict XVI renamed these basilicas from Patriarchal to Papal.
★
St. John Lateran is the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome: the
Pope and hence is the only one called 'archbasilica' (full name: Archbasilica of the Most Holy Saviour, St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist at the Lateran). It is also called the Lateran basilica.
★
St. Peter's Basilica is symbolically assigned to the now abolished position of
Patriarch of Constantinople. It is also known as the Vatican basilica.
★
St. Paul outside the Walls, technically a parish church
[1], is assigned to the
Patriarch of Alexandria. It is also known as the Ostian basilica.
★
St. Mary Major is assigned to the
Patriarch of Antioch. It is also called the Liberian basilica.
While the major basilicas form a class that outranks all other churches, even other papal ones, all other, so called ''minor'' basilicas, as such do not form a single class, but belong to different classes, most of which also contain non-basilicas of equal rank; within each diocese, the bishop's
cathedral takes precedence over all (other) basilicas. Thus after the major basilicas come the primatial churches, the metropolitan, other (e.g. suffragan) cathedrals,
collegiate churches etc.
Patriarchal basilicas in Rome
The four major basilicas above and the
minor basilica of
St Lawrence outside the Walls (representing the
Patriarch of Jerusalem, and without a holy door) are collectively called the patriarchal basilicas. This group of five is representative of the great ecclesiastical provinces of the world symbolically united in the heart of Christendom (see
Pentarchy). On 11th December 2006 it was announced that Pope Benedict XVI had decided they would henceforth be officially known as the Papal Basilicas.
Pontifical ''minor'' basilicas in the rest of Italy
Two more Italian churches are nominally papal patriarchal basilicas:
★
Patriarchal Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi
★
Patriarchal Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in
Portiuncola
Another is the Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of St. Mark in
Venice, which has its own patriarch.
Next in rank are four so-called pontifical basilicas (so in name also papal), in Italy:
★ Pontifical Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of
Pompei
★ Pontifical Basilica of St. Nicholas of
Bari
★ Pontifical Basilica of St. Anthony of
Padua
★ Pontifical Basilica of the Holy House of
Loreto
Other minor basilicas
The lesser minor basilicas are the vast majority, including some cathedrals, many technically parish churches, some shrines, some abbatial or conventual churches.
Cathedral Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec in
Quebec City was the first basilica in North America, designated by
Pope Pius IX in
1874.
St. Adalbert's Basilica in
Buffalo,
New York was the first Basilica in the
United States of America in
1907 by
Pope Pius X. In
Colombia, the
Las Lajas Cathedral has been a minor basilica since
1954.
Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro, Cote d'Ivoire is reported slightly larger than St Peter's Basilica.
There has been a pronounced tendency of late years to add to their number. In 1960,
Pope John XXIII even declared
Generalisimo Franco's grandiose tomb in the monumental
Valley of the Fallen near
Madrid a basilica. In 1961,
Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, in
Carmel, California (USA) was designated as a Minor Basilica by
Pope John XXIII.
Sources and references
Architecture
★
Architecture of the basilica, well illustrated.
★
Basilica Porcia
★
★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>/basilicae.html W. Thayer, "Basilicas of Ancient Rome": from Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby), 1929. ''A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome'' (London: Oxford University Press)
★ Paul Veyne, ed. ''A History of Private Life I: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium,'' 1987
Ecclesiastical basilicas
★
List of All Major, Patriarchal and Minor Basilicas by Giga-Catholic Information
★
''Catholic Encyclopedia'': Basilica & minor parts in other articles
★ Richard Krautheimer, ''Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture''
★
''Domus ecclesiae:'' Privileges and obligations pertaining to minor basilicas
References
1. Major Basilicas in Rome
External links
★
Procession with the ''conopaeum'' and ''tintinnabulum'' by the collegiate chapter of the
Basilica of Sts Peter and Paul in
Gozo,
Malta
See also
★
List of basilicas
★
Cathedral
★
Duomo
★
Roman architecture
★
Polish Cathedral style
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