A
dome is a structural element of
architecture that resembles the hollow upper
half of a
sphere. Dome structures made of
various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into
prehistory.
Corbel domes have been found in the
ancient Middle East in modest
buildings and tombs.
The construction of technically advanced
large-scale true domes began in the Roman Architectural
Revolution, when they were
frequently used by the Romans to shape large interior spaces of
temples and public buildings, such as
the Pantheon
.
This
tradition continued unabated after the adoption of Christianity in the Byzantine religious and secular
architecture, culminating in the revolutionary pendentive dome of the 6th century church
Hagia
Sophia
. With the Muslim conquest of the
Sassanid Empire and the
Byzantine Near East, the dome also became a
feature of
Muslim architecture
(see
gonbad,
gongbei).
Domes in Western Europe became popular again during the
Renaissance period, reaching a
zenith in popularity during the early 18th century
Baroque period. Reminiscent of the
Roman senate, during the 19th century
they became a feature of grand civic architecture. As a domestic
feature the dome is less common, tending only to be a feature of
the grandest houses and palaces during the Baroque period.
Many domes, particularly those from the Renaissance and Baroque
periods of architecture, are crowned by a
lantern or
cupola, a Medieval innovation which not only
serves to admit light and vent air, but gives an extra dimension to
the decorated interior of the dome.
Characteristics
A dome can be thought of as an
arch which has
been rotated around its central vertical axis. Thus domes, like
arches, have a great deal of structural strength when properly
built and can span large open spaces without interior supports.
Corbel domes achieve their shape by
extending each circular layer of stones inward slightly farther
than the previous, lower, one until they meet at the top. These are
sometimes called 'false' domes. 'True', or 'real' domes are formed
with increasingly inward-angled layers which have ultimately turned
90 degrees from the base of the dome to the top. Domes have been
constructed from a variety of
building
materials over the centuries: from mud to stone, wood, brick,
concrete, metal, glass and plastic.
History
Early history and primitive domes

Assyrian bas-relief from Nimrud
showing domed structures in the background
There are numerous sporadic examples of cultures from
pre-history to modern times constructing domed
dwellings using local materials. Although it is not known when the
first dome was created, the earliest known domed structures may be
small dwellings made of
Mammoth tusks and
bones, dated from 15,000 to 20,000 years ago.
Four of these were
found by a farmer in Mezhirich
, Ukraine in 1965 while he was digging in his
cellar.
An
Assyrian bas-relief
from Nimrud
depicts
domed buildings, although remains of such a structure in that
ancient city have yet to be identified due to the impermanent
nature of sun-dried mudbrick
construction.

Apache wigwam, by Edward S.
Examples
of mud-brick buildings which seemed to employ the "true" dome
technique have been excavated at Tell Arpachiyah
, a Mesopotamian site of
the Halaf
(ca. 6100 to
5400 BCE) and Ubaid
(ca. 5300 to
4000 BCE) cultures. However, small corbel domes functioning
as dwellings for poorer people appear to have remained the norm
throughout the ancient Near East until the introduction of the
monumental dome in the Roman period.
Buildings and tombs have been found from Oman to Portugal with
a type of dome using the
corbel technique. The similarities between the
structures in Oman and those in Europe may be coincidental,
however. The Oman structures, built above ground, date to around
3,000 BCE.
The larger Treasury of Atreus
, a Mycenaean
tomb covered with a mound of earth, dates to around 1250
BCE.
The
Wigwam was made by
Native Americans using
arched branches or poles covered with grass or hides. The
Efe Pygmies of central Africa construct similar
structures, using mango leaves as
shingles. Another example is the
Igloo, a
shelter built from blocks of compact snow and used by the Inuit
people, among others.
Roman and Byzantine domes
The Romans created domes using wood, stone, brick, ceramic, and
concrete.
The most famous Roman dome, and the largest,
is in the Pantheon
, a building
in Rome originally built as a temple. Dating from the 2nd
century, it is an unreinforced concrete dome resting on a thick
circular wall, or
rotunda. The circular
opening at the top of the dome is called the
Oculus, and it provides light and ventilation for the
interior. The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior
circle are the same, 43.3 meters (142 ft). It remained the
largest dome in the world for more than a millennium.
The Romans also used
semi-domes, half a
dome "cut" vertically, in
niche
and the
exedra of secular (and later church)
basilicas. By
Late Antiquity, the exedra developed into the
apse, with separate developments in
Romanesque and
Byzantine practice.
The first
Roman dome in domestic architecture may have been in the palatial
and opulent Domus
Aurea
, or "Golden House", of Nero (54-68 AD). A wooden dome is
reported in contemporary sources to have covered the dining hall in
the palace, and been fitted such that perfume might spray from the
ceiling.
The expensive and lavish decoration of the
palace caused such scandal that it was demolished soon after Nero's
death to make way for public buildings such as the Baths of Titus
and the Colosseum
.
"Within the [pagan] Roman world, domed constructions are limited
almost without exception to the three environments of thermae,
villas and palaces, and tombs.
The Pantheon, as part of the Thermae of
Agrippa
, was no exception, whatever its religious character
may have been." With the rise of Christianity and the end of
the
Western Roman Empire, domes
became a signature feature of the religious and secular
architecture of the surviving
Eastern
Roman Empire, often being built at the square intersections of
perpendicular aisles.

The Hagia Sophia, or Church of the
Holy Wisdom, undergoing restoration in Istanbul, Turkey
To support those portions of a dome which would not rest directly
on a square base, techniques were employed in the corners.
Initially, corbelling in the corners or the use of arches called
squinchs was used. The invention of
pendentives, triangular segments of an even
larger dome filling the spaces between the circular bottom of the
dome and each of the four corners of the square base, superseded
the squinch technique.
The most famous Byzantine landmark, the
church of Hagia
Sophia
, was their debut. Pendentives would become
commonly used in
Byzantine,
Renaissance and
baroque churches.
In the
simple dome the pendentives are part of the same
sphere as the dome itself, however such domes are rare.
Sir Banister Fletcher, A History of
Architecture. 18
th ed. London, Athelone Press(1975) ISBN
0-485550-01-6 In the more common
compound dome, such as
the Hagia Sophia, the pendentives are part of the surface of a
larger sphere than the dome itself but whose center is at a point
lower than that of the dome.
When the
Hagia Sophia was completed in 537, it was the largest church in the
world, and remained so for nearly a thousand years, until the
completion of the Seville Cathedral
in 1520. Its large central dome was 31.24
meters (102 ft 6 in) wide and 55.6 meters (182 ft 5 in)
above the floor, about one fourth smaller and greater,
respectively, than the dome of the Pantheon. Unlike the Pantheon,
the peak of the dome was solid, and the base was pierced with a
ring of windows. Additionally, two huge half-domes of similar
proportion were placed on opposite sides of the central dome.
With the decline in the empire's resources following crisis and
territorial losses, domes in Byzantine architecture were used as
part of more modest buildings. The
Cross-in-square plan, with a dome at the
crossing, became most popular in the middle and late Byzantine
periods. Resting the dome on a circular wall pierced with windows
called a drum, or
tholobate, eventually
became the standard style. The combination of pendentive, drum, and
dome was continued in the buildings of the
Italian Renaissance.
Middle Eastern and Western European domes
Ruins of
the Palace of Ardashir, dating
from 224, demonstrate the use of the dome in the Sassanid Empire in what is today Iran
.
Sassanid architecture likely
inherited an architectural tradition of dome-building dating back
to the earliest Mesopotamian domes.
The
Ostrogothic
king Theodoric the
Great built the Mausoleum of Theodoric
in Ravenna
, Italy, in 520, 44 years after the end of the
Western Roman Empire.
The 10 meter wide dome over the mausoleum was carved out of a
single 300 ton slab of stone, very unusual at a time when most
domes were made with bricks.
The
Dome of the
Rock
in Jerusalem, the earliest existing Islamic
building, dates to between 685 and 691. It was reportedly
inspired by the domes of nearby Byzantine churches, such as the
nearby Church of the Holy Sepulchre
, and resembles the design of a Byzantine
martyrium. The dome, made of wood, is approximately 20
meters in diameter and covered with gold.

Interior of St. Mark's Basilica in
Venice, Italy.
Charlemagne, the
Holy Roman Emperor, built the
Palatine Chapel in his palace at
Aachen in the 790s.
The chapel's construction was heavily
influenced by the Byzantine Basilica of San Vitale
in Ravenna. The octagonal dome was the
largest dome north of the Alps at that time.
St Mark's
Basilica
in Venice
, Italy, has
changed and developed over hundreds of years. The current
church was built by 1063, replicating the earlier Greek cross plan
with five domes (one each over the four arms of the cross and one
in the center).
These domes were built in the Byzantine
style, perhaps in imitation of the now lost Church of
the Holy Apostles
in Constantinople. Mounted over pendentives,
each dome has a ring of windows at its base. So impressive were the
gilded mosaics covering the interior that from the 11th century on
the building was known by the nickname Chiesa d'Oro (Church of
gold). Much higher wooden, lead-covered, outer domes with cupolas
were added sometime during the first half of the 13th
century.
Italian Renaissance and Ottoman domes

The Cathedral of Florence, Italy
Brunelleschi's octagonal brick dome for the
Florence
Cathedral
was built between 1420 and 1436.
Santa Maria
del Fiore
, also known as the duomo of Florence,
measures 42 to 45 meters in diameter, depending on whether the base
of the dome is measured from face to face, or angle to
angle. Eight white stone external ribs mark the edges of the
eight sides, next to the red tile roofing, and extend from the base
of the dome to the base of the cupola. It was the largest dome
built in Western Europe since the Pantheon, and remains the largest
masonry dome ever built. Notably, it was built as a double dome,
with inner and outer shells, a technique that would become more and
more common.

Selimiye Mosque dome in Edirne,
Turkey
Süleymaniye
Mosque
, built in Constantinople (modern Istanbul
) from 1550 to 1557, has a main dome 53 meters high
with a diameter of 26.5 meters. At the time it was built,
the dome was the highest in the
Ottoman
Empire when measured from sea level, but lower from the floor
of the building and smaller in diameter than that of the nearby
Hagia Sophia.
The
Selimiye
Mosque
in the city of Edirne, Turkey, was the first
structure built by the Ottomans which had a larger dome than that
of the Hagia Sophia. The dome sits on an octagonal base and
has an internal diameter of 31.25 meters. Designed and built by
architect
Mimar Sinan between 1568 and 1574,
when he finished it he was 86 years old, and he considered the
mosque to be his masterpiece.
The
double walled dome of St. Peter's Basilica
was completed in 1590. Slightly smaller in
diameter than those of the Pantheon and Florence Cathedral, the
inner dome is hemispherical, while the outer ribbed dome is
vertically oval. The outside of the drum is decorated with pairs of
columns between the large windows. Its internal diameter is 41.47
meters (136.1 ft) and its external height from the ground to
the top of the cross is 136.57 meters (448.1 ft). The dome
remains the tallest in the world. The style of the church ushered
in what would become known as
Baroque architecture, and the dome in
particular would have great influence on subsequent designs.
Early modern period domes
The
famous Saint
Basil's Cathedral
in Moscow, Russia, was built from 1555 to
1561. It's distinctive
onion
domes, created later in 1680s, are outstanding examples in
Russian architecture.
Considered the finest example of Mughal architecture, the Taj Mahal
is a mausoleum which combines elements of Persian,
Indian, and Islamic architecture. It was built between 1632
and 1653. Its large marble dome, often called an onion dome or
amrud (guava dome), is about 35 meters high and sits on a
cylindrical drum about 7 meters high.

The dome of St. Paul's Cathedral in
London, England.
St. Paul's
Cathedral
in London was rebuilt from 1677 to 1708.
When finished, the dome designed by
Sir Christopher Wren was three layers:
an inner dome with an oculus, a decorative outer wood dome covered
in lead roofing, and a structural brick cone in between. The brick
cone ends in a small dome, which supports the cupola and outer roof
and the decorated underside of which can be seen through the inner
dome's oculus. It rises 365 feet (108 m) to the cross at its
summit.
Evocative of the much smaller Tempietto by Bramante, it
in turn inspired many of its own imitators, most famously the
second US
Capitol dome
in Washington, DC.
Adjacent
to a hospital and retirement home for injured war veterans, the
royal chapel of Les
Invalides
in Paris,
France, was begun in 1679 and completed in 1708. The dome
was one of many inspired by that of St. Peter's Basilica and it is
an outstanding example of
French Baroque architecture. In
1861 the body of
Napoleon
Bonaparte was moved from St. Helena to the most prominent
location under the dome.
Modern period domes
The dome over the
United States
Capitol building was built from 1855 to 1866. Although painted
white and crowning a masonry building, the dome is actually
cast iron, as are the internal support
framework and stairs. The design was heavily influenced by the dome
of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, among others.
In the 20th century, thin "eggshell" domes of
pre-stressed concrete by
architect-engineers such as
Nervi
opened new directions in fluid vaulted spaces enclosed beneath
freeform domed space which now might be supported merely at points
rather than in the traditional constricting ring.
Geodesic domes were invented after
World War I and popularized by
Buckminster Fuller.
Many sports
stadiums are domed, especially
in climates that have widely-variable summer and winter weather.
The first
such stadium was the Astrodome
in Houston,
Texas
. A major improvement to the domed stadium was
accomplished with the construction of SkyDome, now Rogers Centre
, in Toronto
, Ontario
, the first domed stadium with a retractable
roof.
General types
Corbel dome

A corbel dome.
A
corbel dome is different from a 'true dome' in that it
consists of purely horizontal layers. As the layers get higher,
each is slightly
cantilevered, or
corbeled, toward the center until meeting at
the top. A famous example is the Mycenaean Treasury of
Atreus.
Sail dome

A sail vault.
A
sail dome, more commonly called a
sail vault,
can be thought of as pendentives which, rather than merely touching
each other to form a circular base for a drum or compound dome,
smoothly continue their curvature to form the dome itself. The dome
gives the impression of a square sail pinned down at each corner
and billowing upward.
Saucer dome

A large saucer dome.
A
saucer dome is the architectural term used for a low
pitched shallow dome which is described geometrically as having a
circular base and a segmental (less than a semicircle) section. A
section across the longer axis results in a low dome, capping the
volume. A very low dome is a saucer dome. Many of the largest
existing domes are of this shape.
Gaining in popularity from the 18th century onwards, the saucer
dome is often a feature of
interior
design. When viewed from below it resembles the shallow concave
shape of a
saucer. The dome itself, being
often contained in the space between
ceiling
and
attic, may be invisible externally. These
domes are usually decorated internally by ornate
plaster-work, occasionally they are
frescoed.
They are seen occasionally externally in
Byzantine churches and
Ottoman mosques.
Most of
the mosques in India
, Pakistan
, Iran
and Afghanistan
have these type of domes.
Onion dome

An onion dome.
The
onion dome is a bulbous shape tapering smoothly to a
point, strongly resembling an onion, after which they are named,
and exemplified by Saint Basil's Cathedral
in Moscow
and the
Taj
Mahal
. They are found mostly in eastern
architecture, particularly in Russia
, Turkey
, India
, and the
Middle East. An onion dome is a
type of architectural dome usually associated with Russian Orthodox
churches. Such a dome is larger in diameter than the drum it is set
upon and its height usually exceeds its width.
Oval dome

An oval dome.
The
oval dome is closely associated with the
Baroque style. The term comes from the Latin
ovum, meaning "egg".
Though the oval dome is typically identified
with churches of Bernini and Borromini, the first baroque oval dome
was erected by Vignola
for a chapel, Sant'Andrea in Via Flaminia
often called Sant'Andrea del Vignola.
Julius III commissioned the dome in
1552 and construction finished the following year.
The largest oval dome
was built in the basilica of Vicoforte
by Francesco Gallo.
Parabolic dome
A
parabolic dome is a unique structure, in which bending
stress due to the udl of its
dead
load is zero. Hence it was widely used in buildings in ancient
times, before the advent of composite structures. However if a
point load is applied on the apex of a parabolic dome, the bending
stress becomes infinite. Hence it is found in most ancient
structures, the apex of the dome is stiffened or the shape modified
to avoid the infinite stress.
Polygonal dome

A domical vault.
Technically
domical vaults, these are
domes which maintain a polygonal shape in their horizontal cross
section. The most famous example is the Renaissance octagonal dome
of Filippo Brunelleschi over the Florence Cathedral.
Thomas Jefferson, the third president of
the United States, installed an octagonal dome above the West front
of his plantation house, Monticello
.
Umbrella dome

An umbrella dome.
Also called
pumpkin,
melon,
scalloped,
or
parachute domes, these are a type of dome segmented by
ribs radiating from the center of the dome to the base. The
material between the ribs arches from one to the other,
transferring the downward force to them. The central dome of the
Hagia Sophia uses this method, allowing a ring of windows to be
placed between the ribs at the base of the dome. The central dome
of St. Peter's Basilica also uses this method.
Influential domes
Domes
that have been disproportionately influential in later architecture
are those of the Pantheon
in Rome, Hagia Sophia
in Constantinople (modern Istanbul), and the
Dome of the
Rock
in Jerusalem. In Western
architecture, the most influential domes built after the early
Renaissance exploit of Brunelleschi's
Florentine dome have been those of St. Peter's Basilica
in Rome and Jules
Hardouin-Mansart's dome at Les Invalides
in Paris. The dome of St. Paul's
Cathedral
in London was the inspiration for the United
States Capitol
in Washington, which in turn inspired domes of most
of the US state
capitols.
Domes in buildings of worship
Domes also play a very important part in places of worship where
they can represent and symbolise different aspects of the religion.
Eastern orthodox churches, for example, have domes which represent
heaven. The dome's purpose is to remind people that to gain God's
blessing it is necessary to accept salvation through Christ.Domes
can also be found in Islamic places of worship, called
mosques. In an
orthodox
church the domes have pictures of Jesus whereas in Islam it is
forbidden to show pictures of
Mohammed
during worship. Instead, mosques have decorations and patterns on
the domes. The domes are tradition in Islam, and another reason for
domes is so that the building can be distinguished and others can
see where it is even from far.
See also
References
- Hitchcock, Don. Don's Maps. "Mezhirich -
Mammoth Camp". Accessed on August 15, 2009
- Chisholm, Hugh. The encyclopædia britannica: a dictionary of arts,
sciences ..., Volume 27 (page 957) At the University press,
1911
- Leick, Gwendolyn. A dictionary of ancient Near Eastern
architecture (page 202) Routledge, 1988
- Gwendolyn Leick: A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern
Architecture, London and New York 2003, p. 64 ISBN
0-203-19965-0
- http://www.aam.gov.ae/sections/arc/hafit_tombs.htm
-
http://clustera.cesa10.k12.wi.us/Ecosystems/rainforests/tribes/Efe/
- Kleinbauer, W. Eugène. perspectives in Western art history: an anthology
of twentieth-century writings on the visual arts. Volume 25 of
Medieval Academy reprints for teaching. (page 253)
University of Toronto Press, 1989. 528 pages.
- Kleinbauer, W. Eugène. perspectives in Western art history: an anthology
of twentieth-century writings on the visual arts. Volume 25 of
Medieval Academy reprints for teaching. (page 255)
University of Toronto Press, 1989. 528 pages.
- Chisholm, Hugh. The encyclopædia britannica: a dictionary of arts,
sciences ..., Volume 27 (page 957) At the University press,
1911
- Cathedrals are known as "duomo" in Italian or "Dom" in German, not because they
possess domes. The term stems from the Latin noun "domus", thus a
cathedral is a "domus dei" - a house of God.
- Millers, Keith. St. Peter's. Harvard University Press, 2007
(page 61)
- http://roma.katolsk.no/andreavignola.htm
Gallery
Image:Selimiye Camii.jpg|The exterior of the
dome of Selimiye
Mosque
in Edirne
.
Image:Pendentive and Dome.png|A compound dome (red) with
pendentives (yellow) from a sphere of greater radius than the
dome.
Image:Image-LittleHagiaSophiaInIstanbulDome.JPG|Dome
of the former Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus(today mosque of
Little Hagia Sophia) in Istanbul
.
Image:SFCityHallDomeInterior.JPG|Interior of
the dome, San
Francisco City Hall
.
Image:Imam reza holy shrine.jpg|The dome of
Imam Reza holy shrine, covered with
gold-coated bricks, (built:1333 AD), Mashhad
, Iran
.
Image:St
Joseph the Betrothed 080202.jpg| Interior of St.
Joseph the Betrothed Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in
Chicago,
Illinois
depicting Christ
Pantocrator as in traditional byzantine church style.
Image:Cupula Bellas Artes.jpg|Bellas Artes Palace, Mexico
City.
Image:Kbh
Marmorkirche 1.jpg|The Marble Church
, Copenhagen
.
Image:Dom
Florenz Kuppelfresko.jpg|The interior dome of the Santa Maria
del Fiore
in Florence
designed by Brunelleschi it was completed in
1436.