The two geometric concepts applied on the architectural design of medieval churches in the Balkans

Abstract

This paper presents a combined application of the two geometric concepts to analyze architectural layouts of selected medieval churches in the Balkans. One concept is a geometric construction, known as Štambuk’s canon, which is here supplemented by triangulation. Its application has been already atested to a wide range of late antique and medieval churches in the Balkans. The second concept is the Octagon model, which is based on the recovered geometric drawings incised in stone found at the Octagon monument, originally part of the late Roman Galerius Palace in Thessaloniki. Both these concepts rely on geometric shapes and specifc type of grid, derived from the combination of basic shapes of circles with triangles and squares. In the frst approach, the two types of triangular sequences, i.e. geometric paterns, are applied on the twelve layouts of the churches. The analysis shows that these paterns correspond with the four types of layouts, previously grouped by Nenadović. In the second approach, based on computer modeling and fting the four churches’ layouts into the complex Octagon model, the maximal deviation is +/−3 %. Although these are two diverse starting setings for geometric analysis, this study indicates a strong correlation between them. Namely, Štambuk’s construction and Octagon model have been found to have several elements in common, such as the center of the apse, the edge of Štambuk’s holy triangle. This investigation additionally points to the possibility that the monuments from a wider Balkans region could have been designed by using similar basic geometric principles.