medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Er, not quite, Tom. You had said "that survived antiquity well"; I took
"well" to mean a generally good state of preservation, not a
ready-for-use one. If Rome's Flavian Amphitheatre doesn't meet that
standard, the amphitheatres at Nimes and at Arles, both of which I
mentioned and both in use today, certainly do. They've lost a lot of
their decor, but so have the Maison Carrée and the Pantheon and the
church in Syracuse. "Monumental architecture" and "buildings" are not
mutually exclusive categories, but if by "building" you imply a
limitation to structures with functional space(s), then certainly the
surviving Roman arches (whether triumphal or municipal) have functional
space in their passageways. The Tour Magne at Nimes, a Roman tower, is
also certainly a building (and I don't really think of it as monumental
architecture either). There may be no "intact" theatre left (I note
again a shift in formulation from your previous message) but the one in
Bosra seems to have survived "well" nonetheless. Since this is perhaps
not as well known to others on this list as are the other structures
mentioned so far, here's a view:
http://www.flat3.co.uk/levant/pages/990201.htm
Your previous temporal formulation was "that survived antiquity". But
now you say "There is no intact theatre left, ... Oh, yes and a few
bridges...which are still used, thus maintianed". As if survival until
today and survival into the Middle Ages were one and the same thing. At
the end of antiquity there were other theatres left besides the one at
Bosra (even today there are others, though not as well preserved) and
there were many bridges, not just a few. Again, the Porta Nigra lasted
until the eleventh century before being converted to a Christian church;
during the sixth through tenth centuries it will have been an example of
a surviving Roman secular structure not converted to Christian cult use.
What I termed "extravagant" was your generalization that "the ancient
[specimens of] architecture" to have "survived antiquity well were the
temples that Christians rededicated as churces". Even today there's a
fair amount of secular architecture from Roman antiquity that's survived
well, if not excellently; another possibly less familiar example, cited
as a reminder that military architecture is nonetheless architecture,
are the Roman walls of Lugo:
http://www.redtailcanyon.com/items/13591.aspx
Literary and archeological evidence of the survival into the Middle Ages
of instances of Roman secular architecture is abundant. That most of it
hasn't survived well over the succeeding centuries proves your point
about maintenance (with which latter I think few would wish to
disagree). As does also the fact that most of the instances of secular
architecture that did survive for any length of time after antiquity did
so because people continued to find uses for them. Religious structures
are not the only ones capable of being repurposed.
Best again,
John Dillon
PS: I have no desire to go looking for buildings still in use that are
older than the temple that was turned into Syracuse's cathedral. But,
in case you would find this useful, there's a similar instance at
Agrigento that's just about as old: the so-called Temple of Concord
(converted to a Christian church in late antiquity and deconsecrated in
1788):
http://www.arnoneeditore.com/images/ag_con.jpg
For an account of how this Doric temple was modified for Christian cult
use, see:
http://www.aaa-agrigento.it/html/vallei.htm
s.v. "Tempio della Concordia".
Compare that to the Syracusan example, duscussed here:
http://tinyurl.com/25vbg
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