City in Late Antiquity and Byzantium:Topography and Architecture

Course content

This course intends to introduce students to the field of Late Antique and Byzantine architecture and topography through a survey of major Early Christian and Byzantine cities, i.e. Rome, Ravenna, Milan, Istanbul, and Thessaloniki. The course will present the basic architectural and topographical components introduced by the new political, cultural and religious system, and explore several different factors in determining the distribution and positioning of these components into the urban topography and their relationship with the existing (Classical) buildings and functions. The course thus aims to analyze the transformation of the Classical and Late Antique topography, and the impact of the new cultural and religious concepts into the urban environment before and after the decline of the administrative, social, religious, and architectural structures and functions of the Roman Empire both in the East and the West.