Roman Architecture Essay

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Recommended: Greek influence on Roman culture

Sebastian Fabila Palomares
Mr. Smith
1:10
Roman Architecture

To understand roman architecture one must understand from where the original ideas of what we consider roman. I will demonstrate how roman architecture is a synthesis of greek and etruscan styles and how they managed to survive till today.

We must go back to before the beginning of rome the etruscan ancestors of the roman whose temples gave the foundation to roman styles.we begin with understanding that they began using wood for cullums and mud and brick for the podium and structure to create simple rectangular temples. due to the very flammable materials they used the temple would often be burned down and would have to be rebuilt every time taking a different form. and by creating a high podium that reached 13 feet in height they were closer to the good as they saw it. their temples were made in tri-cella meaning three parts for their god jupiter and his two wives juno and minerva. the temples were built with a long porch to be able to have their people to pray within the temple the cullums were freestanding meaning they were not attached to anything and the only purpose was to hold the ceiling another important asset of the etruscans was that the made the temples with a single staircase giving a temple a facade .the first temple the romans had was the roman optimus maximus built in one of the seven capitoline hills and showed all of the etruscan characteristics, high podium deep porch freestanding columns a tri-cella .

Following from etruscan we need to understand the characteristics of a greek temple. the greek did not allow the people to enter the temple and thus their temple were designed to accommodate their needs. having freestanding columns with and a circu...

... middle of paper ...

... to its weight it has sunken down. the dome being the largest in the world being in diameter 142 ft make the pantheon very large and finally the oculus the hole in the center of the ceiling being round allows the light to come in.

finally the survival of the roman temples are all thanks to the christian churches, they managed to keep many in good shape they would transform the temple by sealing the wall and building a door. such as the temple of portunus it was in fact changed to a church and name the the church of saint mary of egypt. many other temples were change and very possible for many temples to still be found.

as we can see the roman did infact synthesised both roman and greek along with improving them and making innovations that are still being used today. and thanks to the christian church we have many temples standing after more than two centuries.

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