The
Crusades, beginning in 1095, appear to have influenced domed architecture in Western Europe, particularly in the areas around the
Mediterranean Sea. The crusaders also built several churches in Jerusalem during the 12th century. The most complete is the
Church of Saint Anne, which has a small crossing dome.
Duchy of Apulia and Calabria The Mausoleum of
Bohemond (c. 1111–18), a
Norman leader of the
First Crusade, was built next to the in the southern Italian province of
Apulia and has a hemispherical dome in a Byzantine style over a square building with a Greek cross plan. The dome had been covered by a pyramidal roof, according to a 1780s engraving, and the portion above the octagonal drum is a restoration. , , and the were built in the 11th to 13th centuries with pendentive domes. San Corrado also incorporates "squinch-like niches" between the pendentives and drums of two of its three domes. The Cathedral of San Corrado was built around the year 1200.
Kingdom of France A study in 1976 of Romanesque churches in
the south of France documented 130 with oval plan domes, such as the domes on pendentives at and
Balzac, Charente. The oval shape appears to have been a practical solution to rectangular crossing bays. Domes were commonly under crossing towers and generally used squinches, although both squinches and pendentives were used. The oldest French pendentives were built in horizontal courses, rather than courses
normal to the curve. This may have been done to better spread the weight of each course and also allow for a lighter wooden centering to be used during construction. Pendentives became popular in France throughout the 12th century. By the middle of the 12th century, the use of drums with windows beneath the domes allowed in more light. Octagonal drums were preferred. Examples include the crossing domes at
Obazine Abbey and the in the
Limousin region, and the . The church at
Saint-Junien in the Limousin region experimented with flattened pendentives and pointed arches to support a crossing dome before 1101. Other examples include the crossing domes of the (c. 1097), the
Basilica of Notre-Dame du Port (built in the 11th and 12th centuries), (12th century), and the . In the latter three examples, the crossing dome is supported on the north and south sides by adjacent half or full barrel vaults. Another example of a crossing dome on an octagonal drum and pendentives that is part of a tall lantern tower is . The was a centralized lobed building built near Angoulême. In the
Aquitaine region of southwest France, there are a large number of domed Romanesque churches, with over 250 in the
Périgord region alone. The area is far from ports with regular contact with the east and the source of influence is not entirely settled. The greatest concentration of these churches in the
Dordogne department are in the northwest portion. Of the roughly six hundred Romanesque churches in that area, there are 168 domes ranging from 2 meters to 15 meters in diameter. The most common diameter is four meters. The churches in this region typically do not have aisles, and their naves began to be covered by a series of domes around the year 1100. Between the
Garonne and
Loire rivers there are known to have been at least seventy-seven churches whose naves were covered by a line of domes. Half of them are in the Périgord region. Most date to the twelfth century and sixty of them survive. The churches with a file of domes over their naves used pointed arches and pendentives and were built following the First Crusade, roughly from 1105 to 1150. The use of pendentives to support domes in the Aquitaine region, rather than the squinches more typical of western medieval architecture, strongly implies a Byzantine influence. The Romanesque domes used stone masonry, rather than the lighter ceramic material of Byzantine practice, and the greater weight sometimes caused structural problems. Domes in this area being arranged in linear series has suggested the contemporary architecture of
Cyprus as the inspiration, which was located on a
pilgrimage route to the
Holy Land. Cyprus had developed its own style of domed basilica during its
period of neutrality between Byzantine and Arab rulers, using three domes of roughly equal size in a line over the nave and very little lighting. There are indications of a connection between Aquitaine and Cyprus just after the First Crusade. Precisely dating the domes and determining the order in which the buildings were completed has been difficult, in part because of "drastic 19th century over-restoration". Possible early domes may have existed at the church of
Saint-Astier, Dordogne, which was founded in 1010 although little of the original construction remains, and at
Saint-Avit-Sénieur (c. 1117), whose original three domes were replaced with "domed up Anjou vaults" in the 13th century.
Angoulême Cathedral was built from 1105 to 1128. Its long nave is covered by four stone domes on pendentives, springing from pointed arches, the last of which covers the crossing and is surmounted by a stone lantern. The westernmost of the Angoulême domes is the earliest, constructed between 1100 and 1125. Four small recesses at the base of each nave dome, just above the cornices, were likely used to secure wooden centering formwork during construction. Later stone domes in the region have four small windows in a similar location that may have been used in the same way. The domes of Angoulême Cathedral and some other contemporary churches in the region, particularly rural examples, were originally hidden on the exterior by a
gable roof. The external roofing and small number of windows in the domes of the region (no more than four) indicate that the domes were not intended to serve as
lanterns. Although the concentration of thrust into the corners of the domed bays allowed for large windows to be in the walls beneath the dome arches, only some of the churches took advantage of this. The more rural domed churches usually have just one small window per bay and remain dark. Unlike the domes of Angoulême Cathedral, the domes of the church of and
Cahors Cathedral were visible on the exterior. The domes of St. Étienne at Périgueux preceded the larger ones at Cahors Cathedral. St. Étienne originally had four domes, but two were destroyed in the 16th century. Of the remaining two, the earlier one was completed around 1125 the later one by 1163. Cahors Cathedral (c. 1100–1140) covers its nave with two large domes in the same manner and influenced the later . The domes at Cahors have a diameter of more than . The dome exteriors were expressed with a brick covering before the 1840s. At Souillac, the cruciform church had a dome over the crossing and two more over the nave. The domes were originally expressed externally, with a flat-stone roof resting directly on the exterior surface. The lanterns on the domes at Souillac were added in a 19th century restoration.
Fontevraud Abbey served as a burial place for
Plantagenet royalty, including
Richard the Lionheart, and is one of the most impressive examples. The earlier domed crossing is preceded by a wider nave covered by four domes, which was begun in 1125. The pendentives are original, but the four nave domes are modern replacements from about 1910. Originally designed as a three-aisled
hall church with barrel vaults, after the choir was completed the nave was redesigned with piers to support the line of domes spanning the full width. The
Abbaye aux Dames in Saintes was likewise remodeled during construction to allow for its domes.
Solignac Abbey (prior to 1142) used granite and has relatively squat proportions, but the domed eastern arm was built with a domed nave in mind. The transept arms were originally barrel vaulted. The domes were originally covered by tiles on the exterior. The
cathedral of S. Front at Périgueux was built around 1125–1150 and derives its five-domed cruciform plan ultimately from the
Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. One of the domes covers part of the choir, the rest of which is covered by a barrel vault and apse half-dome, although most domed churches in the region used only a barrel vault and apse half-dome for the choir. The domes differ from normal Byzantine practice in the use of stone, rather than a lighter material such as brick, and that difference may help explain the other differences, such as the domes being slightly pointed and at least semicircular, rather than segmental, springing from a distance set back from the circle formed by the pendentives, rather than directly from the circle, and resting on pendentives with complex curves that begin at the lower side of the supporting arch voussoirs, rather than quarter-circle pendentives beginning at the upper side. The S. Front domes had dressed stone only on the lowest levels prior to alterations by
Paul Abadie in the 19th century. The alterations included replacing the original pendentive masonry and the rough courses of stone in the domes. There was a wooden roof covering the domes from about 1760, but originally the domes were visible externally and covered by tiles. Twelfth century examples include the , , ,
Church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption in
Verteillac, and . Other examples include the , which has four domes covering its 27 meter by 5.3 meter interior, the , whose later painted decoration dates from the 14th-16th centuries, and the more typical church of
Saint-Martial-Viveyrol. Churches in Perigord and
Saintonge with a file of domes built between roughly 1160 and 1180 include , , ,
Sablonceaux Abbey, , , and . The domed crossing of the
Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy was built by 1130. The first "Angevin pseudo-polygonal vault" was the octagonal rib dome with Gothic corner squinches built over the square porch of the
Abbey of Saint-Florent in Saumur (c. 1180). It was the model for similar vaults in the chapter house at
Church of Sainte-Radegonde in Poitiers (c. 1220), St. Catherine's Chapel at Fontevraud (1225), and the churches of
Fontaines-en-Sologne,
Clussais-la-Pommeraie, and (early 13th century). The octagonal crossing of
Ferrières Abbey (late 1100s - early 1200s) may be an imitation of the Palatine Chapel at Aachen. It is an irregular octagon, with the arches in the cardinal direction slightly wider than the diagonal arches, and the span is 10.6 meters. A similar octagon was built in
Nidaros Cathedral in Norway (1183 - early 1200s). The crossing of is an example of a "double chevet" dome, as is that of
Coutances Cathedral (second half of the 13th century). Gothic
rib vaulting superseded the use of domes in south-west France after the 12th century. The church at
Saint-Avit-Sénieur appears to have been designed for domes but they may never have been built. The nave is covered instead by
ribbed Angevin style vaults. The "domical shape of Angevin vaults", like those seen in
Angers Cathedral, may be due to the influence of the Romanesque domed churches. The foundations of
Bordeaux Cathedral indicate that it originally had a nave covered with a line of three domes like those of Angoulême Cathedral but it was rebuilt in the 13th century with a vaulted ceiling.
Saintes Cathedral may also have originally had domes over its nave.
Holy Roman Empire Kingdom of Italy Churches in northern Italy after 1100 were designed with vaulting from the outset, rather than as colonnaded basilicas with timber roofs and, like the Rhenish imperial cathedrals, many have octagonal domes with squinches over their crossings or choirs. Examples include
Parma Cathedral, rebuilt around 1130, and
Piacenza Cathedral (1122–1235). Another example is the domed
church of San Fedele in Como (11th to 12th century), similar to the church of
St. Maria im Kapitol. The east ends of the Basilica of San Fedele and St. Maria im Kapitol, with ambulatory passages around the transept arms, appear to imitate the
Basilica of San Lorenzo in Milan. The
Padua Baptistery is believed to have been built contemporaneously with the 1120s reconstruction of
Padua Cathedral, a revision of the traditional foundation date of 1260. It has a dome on pendentives spanning an 11.6 meter square space, with a small altar chapel through the eastern wall. It served as a model for the later Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo. The domed square form of the building may have been inspired by ancient mausolea from the Near East. The
Old Cathedral of Brescia was likely built in the first quarter of the 12th century and has a dome over a meter thick, made of heavy stone at the bottom and lighter porous stone at the top. In
Tarquinia, the oval stone dome on squinches over the church of San Giacomo (c. 1121–1140) may have been inspired by the dome of Pisa Cathedral. A dome on pendentives in Tarquinia was completed around 1190 as part of the
cathedral of Sta. Maria di Castello and was similar to others in Tuscany and the Veneto. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1819. The dome of the
Basilica of San Lorenzo in Milan, a
tetraconch building with a central space 23.8 meters square, was rebuilt in the Romanesque style after a fire in 1124. Much admired in the Renaissance, its dome collapsed in 1573 and was rebuilt with the present cloister vault. The dome was said to have been modeled on the dome of the Pantheon and was often compared to it during the Renaissance. The building was mistakenly thought to have been the site of a Temple of Mercury that was renovated by Emperor
Maximian and dedicated as a Temple of Hercules. Documentary evidence indicates that the Romanesque dome of San Lorenzo was a thin hemisphere of light material over a cube of space about 23.8 meters (40 Milanese braccia) on each side. The dome was supported by four corner squinches resting on the four
exedrae arches of the square space with a further eight smaller squinches between each of them to create a sixteen-sided base. It was covered on the exterior by a cylindrical or polygonal drum and timber roof. The exterior drum was likely polygonal, with eight or sixteen sides, and had two levels of
dwarf galleries beneath a cornice row of
hanging arches. Evidence remains in the building's eastern corner towers of
flying buttresses extending diagonally to the drum. The existence of a small lantern at the top of the dome is uncertain and the date the dome was completed is unknown. The
cathedral of Sovana (1153–1175) and the
church of San Salvatore at Terni (about 1200) were constructed with local materials and have precedents in the region. The alternating stone and brick rings of the dome over the at the
Abbey of San Galgano are unusual but may be part of Tuscan decorative
polychrome banding. It was built in the 1180s as a commemorative chapel with a hemispherical dome over a cylindrical rotunda and the top 16 rings are all in brick, giving the impression of an oculus at the top of the dome. The
Baptistery of Parma, one of the largest baptisteries, was begun in 1196 and has dome frescoes dating from 1260 onwards. The crossing dome of
Massa Marittima Cathedral in south Tuscany was built in the 13th century as a 7.1 meter tall brick octagonal cloister vault on squinches over a rectangular space of 8.5 meters by 9.7 meters. An external domed shell was replaced in 1930 with a pitched roof of planar faces. The dome of
Siena Cathedral had an exposed profile as early as 1224, and this feature was retained in its reconstruction around 1260. The dome has two shells and was completed in 1264. It is set over an irregular
hexagon with squinches to form an irregular
twelve-sided base. No large dome had ever before been built over a hexagonal crossing. The current lantern dates from the 17th century and the current outer dome is a 19th-century replacement. The crossing dome of
Ancona Cathedral was visible externally.
Chiaravalle Abbey in Milan included an octagonal dome under its tower, supported on squinches, dated to the end of the 13th century. An octagonal dome for Florence Cathedral may have been part of the original design by
Arnolfo di Cambio for the church, construction of which began in 1296. The
Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua was similar to the Byzantine
Church of the Holy Apostles. It was built between 1231 and 1300, in the early period of
Italian Gothic architecture, and features seven domes with a blend of Gothic and Byzantine elements. Similar to
St Mark's Basilica in Venice, its nave, transepts, crossing, and the intermediate bay before the choir are covered by domes on pendentives in the Byzantine style. Externally, the crossing dome is covered with a conical spire. The choir dome, which may be later than the others, is uniquely Gothic with ribs. An eighth dome covers the attached Relics Chapel, adjacent to the choir dome. The masonry domes are covered externally by timber structures and several were repaired following a 1347 lightning strike and a 1748 fire. The two nearest the facade may be in their original condition. The inner brick domes range from 13.62 to 14.48 meters in diameter.
Dendrochronological analysis confirmed original timbers in three of the eight outer domes: the two westernmost domes near the facade and the northern transept dome over the Chapel of St. Anthony. They may be the oldest timber domes in Europe. The other four outer coverings (over the crossing dome, the dome over the south transept, the presbytery dome, and the choir dome) were replaced after 1749. The easternmost dome over the Chapel of the Relics was built in the 18th century.
Kingdom of Germany The crossing of
Worms Cathedral is an example of a "double chevet" dome. The domed "Decagon" nave of
St. Gereon's Basilica in
Cologne, Germany, a ten-sided space in an oval shape, was built between 1219 and 1227 upon the remaining low walls of a 4th-century Roman mausoleum. The ribbed domical vault rises four stories and 34 meters above the floor, covering an oval area 23.5 meters long and 18.7 meters wide. It may have served as a burial place for the Frankish kings before being modified to serve as a church. It is unique among the
twelve Romanesque churches of Cologne, and in European architecture in general, and may have been the largest dome built in this period in Western Europe until the completion of the dome of
Florence Cathedral. The crossing dome of the
Church of the Holy Apostles in Cologne (early to mid 13th century) has a lantern that may have been inspired by Florence Baptistery.
Abbasid Caliphate Almoravid dynasty The intersecting rib domes of the Great Mosque in Cordoba appear in North Africa in the dome of the
Qubbat Barudiyyin (c. 1120) in
Marrakesh. The dome has
multifoil arches and carved stucco with vegetal and shell patterns. Unlike the Cordoba ribs, those of the Almoravid Qubba are hidden such that the structure appears to be three layers of tri-lobed squinches supporting the dome. Behind each of the lowest squinches is a small lobed dome on two layers of muqarnas. The design of the dome appears to blend the style of domes at Cordoba with those at Baghdad. The dome has two shells of masonry, which is unique in the western Islamic world and suggests an eastern influence. Wooden inserts link the two shells. The inner dome is brick with a thick layer of carved plaster on the interior forming eight ribs between eight lobes. It may have originally been painted, but no traces survive. The exterior dome has a pattern of interlaced arches below a chevron pattern that creates a seven-pointed star at the peak. The dome decoration may have been similar to that on now-lost Abbasid domes at the
Haram of Mecca, according to an account of those domes by
Ibn Jubayr, which may themselves reflect a dome type in the Abbasid capital of Baghdad. It may have been built in 1117 as a shelter for a fountain celebrating the completion of a water supply system for the city. It is one of the few Almoravid structures in their capital city not destroyed by the Almohads. After the destruction of the Almoravid palace and mosque, the Almohads made the structure serve as an
ablution fountain surrounded by
latrines. A dome of
Qarawiyyin Mosque (1135) is also similar to the
maqsurah dome of the Great Mosque of Cordoba. The squinches are half groin vaults, as are the vast majority of squinches in the Maghreb region. The exterior of the Qarawiyyin Mosque dome has a vertical zig-zag decoration, as does the dome of the Bayn al-Qahaoui in
Sousse. In Islamic North Africa, there are several early muqarnas domes dating from the twelfth century. The earliest may be an
Almoravid restoration between 1135 and 1140 of a series of stucco muqarnas domes over the axial nave of the mosque of the Qarawiyyin in
Fez. The existence of a near contemporary example from 1154 in the
maristan of
Nur al-din in Damascus, Syria, and the earlier example of a muqarnas dome in al-Dawr, Iraq, suggests that the style was imported from Baghdad.
Ayyubid dynasty Ayyubid domes tended to be smooth, hemispherical or stilted forms with no external drum. The domes were supported by squinches above the square bay walls, corresponding to what were often stepped exterior transition zones. This continued to be the structure used in Cairo domes until the mid 14th century. The curved squinch forms used by the Fatimids were replaced by the Ayyubids with more angular forms. An interior zone of transition with three tiers of squinches was first used by the Ayyubids, resulting in a higher dome. Bulbous domes were used to cover large buildings in Syria after the eleventh century. After his
conquest of the city of Jerusalem,
Saladin rebuilt the dome of the
Al-Aqsa Mosque as it is today, as part of extensive restorations. On the same platform as the Dome of the Rock, Saladin built the commemorative
Qubbat Yusuf. He built the
Qubbat Sulayman (1200) and the
Qubbat al-Miʿrāj (1200-1201) using materials from Crusader buildings. The
Qubba al-Nahawiyya (1207-1208) was built at the southwest corner of the platform at the behest of
Al-Mu'azzam Isa, the governor of Damascus. The
Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi'i (built in 1211) has a large wooden double dome (rebuilt in 1722) about 29 meters high and, with the tombs of
al-Malik al-Silah and the so-called Tomb of the Abbasid Caliphs, is one of three important Ayyubid tombs in
Cairo dating from the first half of the 13th century. The diameter of the dome of the tomb of the Abbasid Caliphs is 6.76 meters. The dome of the Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi'i has the earliest example of the three-tiered squinch, made in wood. The domed mausoleum was built 35 years after the
madrassa ordered by Saladin at the site in 1176–7, introduced in Egypt after 1171 to counter
Shia Islam. As part of a 1217-1218 remodeling of the front porch of
Al-Aqsa Mosque,
Al-Mu'azzam Isa added a dome on pendentives to the porch's central bay, in front of the entrance. It is not known whether the Templar-era porch had a similar dome. The largest preserved
Ayyubid dome is that of the
Matbakh al-'Ajami in
Aleppo, resting on muqarnas pendentives. It may have been the palace residence of the al-'Ajami family. Madrasas in Syria between the mid-12th century and the end of the 13th century normally included a mosque with a central dome flanked by barrel vaults. In Aleppo, the
Al-Zahiriyah Madrasa begun by
Az-Zahir Ghazi includes six domes. In
Al-Firdaws Madrasa (1235–1237), built by princess
Dayfa Khatun in Aleppo, the mosque dome above the mihrab has five rows of muqarnas in the transition zone. Ayyubid ruler
Al-Ashraf Musa built the
Al-Tawbah Mosque in
Damascus in 1235 similar to the Artuqid domed mosque style. The smooth dome is supported by a sixteen-sided drum with windows in alternating sides, created by eight squinches over an octagon which was itself created by four squinches over the bay in front of the mihrab. The
Qubbat Musa was added in 1249 by
As-Salih Ayyub after
taking the city of Jerusalem from Crusaders in 1244. Almost 100 Ayyubid tombs survive in Damascus; most are from the 13th century. The two domes of
al-Madrasa al-Jahariksiyya in the Damascus suburb of
Al-Salihiyah were built by Amir Sarim al-Din Khatluba as tombs for himself and Amir Fakhr al-Din Jaharks al-Nasiri al-Salahi. Domes at Ayyubid and Mamluk madrasas in Cairo were funerary. The dome of the
Mausoleum of Shajar al-Durr (1250) has a diameter of 7.17 meters. Brick three-tiered squinches were used at
Salihiyya Madrasa (1243–1250). Built by
As-Salih Ayyub on the site of the Fatimid Eastern Palace, it is the only madrassa from the period to partly survive. The 10 meter wide domed tomb at its northern end led to the series of funerary madrassas built in Cairo by the
Mamluk Sultans. It was the largest dome in Eqypt up to that point. It has trefoil arches over the corners of the bay, five-foil arches on the walls, and a 20-sided base for the dome.
Rasulid dynasty In the
Yemen area, the earliest surviving domed mosques are under the Rasulids, with a large central dome that has pairs on smaller domes on the sides. Earlier examples may have been built by the Ayyubids, who also introduced madrasas to the area, but they have not survived. Examples include the
Asadiyya Madrasa at
Ibb (built before 1258), which also has domes at the corners of the forecourt arcades, and the
Mudhaffar Mosque at
Taʿizz (1249–1295), which has a domed central bay flanked on either side by paired smaller domes and another large dome. The tower is also topped by a small dome. Smaller mosques, which had been built with flat roofs, also began to be built with domes.
Mamluk Sultanate Over the course of 250 years, around 400 domes were built in Cairo to cover the tombs of Mamluk
sultans and
emirs. Mamluk domes were also built over palaces,
hammams, and
zawiyas. Dome profiles were varied, with "keel-shaped", bulbous,
ogee, stilted domes, and others being used. On the drum, angles were
chamfered, or sometimes stepped, externally and triple windows used in a tri-lobed arrangement on the faces. Accentuating the transitional zone produced higher domes and most Mamluk domes and transitional zones together are taller than their building's facade. The stalactites of squinches and pendentives in the architecture of Cairo are non-structural and each row is supported by a stone corbel or a wooden plank. Shallow vestibule domes were usually stone.
Bahri dynasty The style and technique of Mamluk dome architecture was in the Fatimid and Ayyubid tradition. Bahri Mamluk domes used two types of profile until the mid-fourteenth century: a profile that curves beginning immediately above the drum, and a profile that curves after a cylindrical section above the drum that is less than a third of the total dome height. The latter would be favored for brick and masonry domes that were built in Cairo after the mid-fourteenth century. The architectural rules for dome transitional zones established by the Fatimids and Ayyubids were not continued by the Bahri Mamluks, who innovated in structural, decorative, and constructive techniques. Internally, the squinches of the zone of transition developed into miniaturized and pointed versions that were used row upon row over the entire expanded zone and bordered above and below by plain surfaces. Pendentives were adopted in Cairo after they were used in Aleppo. In the provinces, concave transitional zones were characteristic, but never appeared in Cairo. The transition zone of the dome of
tomb of Fāṭima Khātūn (1284) uses squinches with corbelled layers of muqarnas and can be considered a test case for constructing transitional zones for large domes. Early examples include the domes of
Salihiyya Madrasa (1283–1284), which has interior squinches filled in with stalactite pendentives, the
Mausoleum of Sultan Qalawun (1284–1285), which has no interior zone of transition, and the mausoleum of
Al-Ashraf Khalil (1288), which uses stalactite squinches. The
Qubbat al-Ṣawābī (1286 or 1335) has muqarnas similar to those of
Gunbad-i Khākī in Isfahan, Iran. The domes of the tomb of Fāṭima Khātūn and the (1291) use "double-arch facets" in their muqarnas support, a technique that only appears in Egypt. Two layers of these facets reduce the diameter of the dome of Ribāṭ Aḥmad b. Sulaymān to 3.3 meters while increasing the height of its transitional section. One of the two domes of
Zāwiyat al-Abbār (1285) has three layers of muqarnas form a 24-sided base. Nine examples of domes resting on five-foil arches on both the walls and corners date between 1284 and 1321. The wooden dome with wooden squinches over the mihrab of the
Mosque of Ibn Tulun appears to have been restored by Sultan
Lajin in 1295–1296. It includes a "a half-star unit with a partite petal facet like that seen in Syrian stone muqarnas". The wooden muqarnas are the earliest existing examples in Cairo. The domed prayer hall and
maqam of the
zawiya of
Dayr al-Shaykh may have been built in the 13th century for the remains of Islamic religious teacher Sultan Badr. The maqam may have been built slightly later. The prayer hall dome is a hemisphere on a circular drum with four windows and spherical pendentives that spring from ground level, suggesting the level of the floor was originally lower. There is a tomb on the south side of the chamber. The maqam is a smaller square building with an elliptical-profile dome over squinches in a chamber measuring 2 meters by 2 meters. The south side of the dome has a hole that admits light.
Influence of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre Catholicon The
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem seems to have had a wooden dome in two shells up to the 12th century, with some interruptions. After establishing control of the city, the crusaders added a
choir with a dome next to the existing rotunda. The
French Romanesque addition replaced the eastern apse of the rotunda and a courtyard marking the
center of the world and was consecrated on July 15, 1149, the fiftieth anniversary of the capture of the city. The new dome's diameter of 10.4 meters was half that of the rotunda and it rested on four pointed arches on four pillars. It served as the coronation site for the crusader
kings of Jerusalem and its relation to the larger dome over the rotunda may have been intended to mirror the relationship between the domes of the
Dome of the Rock and the
Al-Aqsa Mosque on the
Temple Mount. The rotunda itself was covered by a conical structure from the 12th to the early 19th century.
Pisa Baptistry was built in 1153 with a truncated cone in clear imitation of the Holy Sepulchre; an outer dome shell was added in the 14th century. The domed baptisteries of Cremona (1176) and Parma (1196) also appear to have been influenced by the rotunda. The 12th century rotunda of the Holy Sepulchre at
Santo Stefano, Bologna, and the basilica at
Neuvy-Saint-Sépulchre are imitations of Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre although, like many of the imitations across Europe, they differ in their details, including their domes. Most of these "so-called 'copies'" have a dome or domical vault. An example is
a church at Almenno, Italy, which has a stone dome resting on eight supporting columns. The in
Asti, Italy, was built in the first half of the 12th century, likely by the former crusader Bishop
Landulf of Yariglia. The round building surrounds eight columns supporting an octagonal dome 4.84 meters wide, which may have originally been made of wood. It was given to the
Knights Hospitaller in 1169. The (second half of the 12th century) may reference the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the 8.31 meter distance between the columns flanking its central altar, but it is unusual in its dedication to the Virgin Mary and that it has a seven-sided dome supported on four piers and three columns. This may be a reference to the seven pillars of wisdom mentioned in the
Book of Proverbs. The Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount of Jerusalem were taken by the crusaders to represent the
Temple of Solomon and the
Palace of Solomon, respectively. The
Knights Templar, headquartered at the site, built a series of centrally planned churches throughout Europe modeled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with the Dome of the Rock also an influence. Examples include the church of the
Vera Cruz at Segovia, the church of the
Convento do Cristo at Tomar, a destroyed during the French Revolution, and
Temple Church in London. The
Church of Saint Mary of Eunate was a pilgrims' burial church, rather than a Templar church, but may have been influenced by them. The
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Cambridge and the contain ribbed domes. The round church at the Templar's Portuguese headquarters in Tomar was begun in the 1170s. Its central octagon is about 9 meters in diameter, surrounded by an ambulatory and
16-sided outer wall. The dome was rebuilt following a lightning strike in 1508.
Kingdom of León The remains of a
crossing tower on the French
Church of Saint-Jean de Montierneuf from about 1140 suggest an origin for some Spanish domes in a Romanesque and transitional Gothic style. The architectural influences at work here have been much debated, with proposed origins ranging from Jerusalem, Islamic Spain, or the
Limousin region in western France to a mixture of sources. The disappeared Romanesque dome over the
Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela has also been proposed. During the
Reconquista, the
Kingdom of León in northern Spain built three churches famous for their domed crossing towers, called , as it acquired new territories. The
Cathedral of Zamora, the
Cathedral of Salamanca, and the
collegiate church of Toro were built around the middle of the 12th century. All three buildings have stone umbrella domes with sixteen ribs over windowed drums of either one or two stories, springing from pendentives. All three also have four small round towers engaged externally to the drums of the domes on their diagonal sides. A later related dome is that over the chapter house of the
Old Cathedral of Plasencia. The early Gothic
Cathedral of Évora in Portugal has been proposed as a late addition to the set. Perhaps the masterpiece of the series, the Salamanca crossing tower has two stories of windows in its drum. Its outer stone fish-scale roof lined with gothic
crockets is a separate corbelled layer with only eight lobes, which applies weight to the haunches of the sixteen-sided inner dome. The vaulting over the nave of the old Salamanca Cathedral is covered by domes supported by diagonal ribs in the western bays and
Anjou-style domed-up rib vaults in the two eastern bays. The influence of Islamic crossed-arch domes can be seen in the dome of the . The dome of the in
Segovia is an octagonal crossed-arch dome on squinches that may have been made with concrete around the middle of the 12th century. Another unusual Spanish example from the late 12th or early 13th century is the dome of the in
Torres Del Río, on the
Way of St. James. The Way, a major
pilgrimage route through northern Spain to the reputed burial place of
St. James the Greater, attracted pilgrims from throughout Europe, especially after pilgrimage to Jerusalem was cut off. The difficulty of travel to Jerusalem for pilgrimage prompted some new churches to be built as a form of substitute, evoking the central plan and dome of Jerusalem's
Church of the Holy Sepulchre with their own variant. The dome in this case, however, is most evocative of the central
mihrab dome of the
Great Mosque of Cordoba. Over an octagonal room, the stone dome is formed by sixteen ribs, eight of which intersect with one another in a star pattern to define a smaller octagon at the center of the dome. There are a number of Christian crossed-arch dome examples in Spain and the south of France from the end of the 12th century, with patterns based upon the square or octagon. The
church of San Pablo in Cordoba, begun in 1241, includes two such domes: an eight pointed star dome with another eight-pointed star over the central opening, and a second dome with ribs for an eight-pointed star that transition to ribs for a central cross and square, which was copied in many Christian buildings. Other 13th century examples are found at , , ,
Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas, Salamanca Cathedral, and the , converted from a mosque in 1249. The style experienced a revival in early 16th century Spain when one of the crossed-arch domes of the Great Mosque of Córdoba was used as the model for domes at
Zaragoza,
Teruel, and
Tarazona.
Kingdom of Castile The 13th century ribbed dome on squinches at the crossing of the in
Ávila, Spain is an example of a "double chevet" style dome.
Kingdom of Aragon The dome of
Tarragona Cathedral was built in the French Gothic style and includes alternating sets of three and four windows at the base. The octagonal dome was built in the middle of the 13th century and is supported by angular squinches and is similar to the dome of the
Monastery of Sant Cugat. A crossed-arch dome was built in
Teruel Cathedral from 1248-1278.
Almohad Caliphate Islamic examples of crossed-arch domes in Spain and North Africa are distinguished from contemporary Christian examples by the use of thinner and more numerous arches, such as those of the
Alcázar of Seville, the
Villena Castle in Alicante, the
Great Mosque of Taza, and the minaret of
Koutoubia Mosque. The Tower of the Prison, or
Torre de la Cercel, at
Castillo de Alcalá la Real includes two star-ribbed domes. The
Mosque of the Seven Sleepers in
Chenini supports its small dome on four horizontal shelves over the corners of its square bay. This solution, using wood or stone shelves to support small domes, normally less than 5 meters in diameter, was used in simple buildings such as
marabouts. == See also ==