Round church
A round church is a church with a completely circular plan, thus a rotunda in architectural terms.
There are many Nordic round churches in Sweden and Denmark (notably the island of Bornholm); round churches were popular in Scandinavia in the 11th and early 12th centuries.
Round churches should not be confused with the older types of round-tower church constructions. Churches with many-sided polygonal shapes (such as the 16-sided example in Richmond, Vermont, USA) are likewise colloquially referred to as 'round'.
Round churches by country
Armenia
Zvartnots Cathedral in Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin),[1] often cited as the world's largest round church during its existence in the Middle Ages[2][3][4]
Bosnia
Brazil
Bulgaria
Canada
Croatia
Denmark
- Nyker Church
- Nylars Church
- Saint Ols Church
- Østerlars Church, Bornholm
- Bjernede Church, Zealand
- Horne Church, Funen (with later gothic extensions)
- Thorsager Church, Jutland.
Ethiopia
- Ura Kidane Mehret Church, Lake Tana[5]
France
Medieval churches of Saint-Bonnet-la-Rivière and Neuvy-Saint-Sépulchre, Baroque churches as Chapelle de l'Oratoire, Avignon and Vieille Charité church, Marseille.
Germany
Aachen Cathedral. Liebfrauenkirche in Trier. St. Ludwig in Darmstadt, Hessen. There is also a round church in Untersuhl, Thuringia.
Hungary
- Saint Anne Church, Kallósd
- Roman Catholic Church in Kiszombor
- Rotunda, Öskü
- St. Jacob Rotunda, Ják,
- Neoclassical church, Balatonfüred (19th century)
Italy
- Church of Saint Stephen, Rome
- Church of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Rome
- Old Cathedral of Brescia
- Church of Saint Lawrence, Mantua
- Santo Stefano, Bologna
- Church of Saint Angelo, Perugia
- Church of Saint Marie, Forlì
The Netherlands
Norway
Philippines
- Padre Pio Shrine, Santo Tomas, Batangas.
- Church of the Holy Sacrifice in the campus of the University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City.
Portugal
Monastery of Serra do Pilar, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal.
Serbia
Spain
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Sweden
- Church ruins of Agnestad
- Bromma Church
- Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Stockholm[6]
- Hagby Church
- Church ruins of Klosterstad
- Munsö Church
- Skörstorp Church
- Solna Church
- Tjärstads Church
- Valleberga Church
- Vårdsberg Church
- Voxtorp Church.
United Kingdom
In England, there are four medieval round churches still in use: Holy Sepulchre, Cambridge; Temple Church, London; St John the Baptist Church, Little Maplestead, Essex, and The Holy Sepulchre, Northampton. St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury, is a Georgian round church, and the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral was built in the 20th century. The 18th-century All Saints' Church, Newcastle upon Tyne, is now part of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales.
In Scotland, the medieval Orphir Round Church near Houton on Mainland, Orkney, is in ruins. Kilarrow Parish Church at the top of main street in Bowmore is a round church, built in 1767, on the island of Islay, on Scotland's west coast.
Gallery
- Church of Saint Vitus, Rijeka, Croatia
- Bjernede Church near Sorø, Denmark
- Thorsager Church, Thorsager, Denmark
- Thorsager church, interior
- Holy Sepulchre, Cambridge, England
- Untersuhl Church, Germany
- Saint Anne Church, Kallósd, Hungary
- Bowmore Church, Islay, Scotland
- Church of St. Anthony of Padua, Belgrade, Serbia
- The rotunda of Saint Nicolas, Cieszyn, Poland
References
- Ann Vibeke Knudsen, The Old Churches of Bornholm. Bornholm Museum, Rønne, 1999. ISBN 87-88179-43-5.
- Adalian, Rouben Paul (2010). Historical Dictionary of Armenia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-8108-7450-3.
...the singular jewel of Armenian architecture, the seventh-century round cathedral of Zvartnots...
- Baliozian, Ara (1980). The Armenians: Their History & Culture. Ararat Press. p. 148.
...the famous 7th-century Zvartnots cathedral (the largest round church in the world)...
- Chahin, M. (2001). The Kingdom of Armenia: A History. Curzon. p. 275.
It is the largest round church in the world.
- Fodor's Soviet Union, 1985. Fodor's Travel Publications. 1984. p. 379. ISBN 9780679011545.
...the ruined seventh - century Cathedral at Zvartnots . Zvartnots , in its day the largest round church in the world ...
- "Churches of Ethiopia".
- "The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church". 21 November 2017.
External links
Media related to Round churches at Wikimedia Commons