The present review addresses only the first part of this Tome – the thematic folder (Dossier, pp. 11–258). Its focal point is the chevet of the martyrium of St Simeon the Stylite (d. c. 459) at Qalʿat Semʿan, Syria, and its architectural interrelation and impact on the chevets of other churches of the Levant. This sumptuous martyrium, erected during the years 470–90 around the column on the top of which the renowned monk spent the last thirty years of his life, was financed by subventions from the emperors Leo and Zeno. Its fame spread far and wide and it became a major centre of pilgrimage. The martyrium, cruciform, was comprised of four basilicas with an octagon at their intersection, built around the venerated column. The regular Christian rite was held in the eastern basilica. Its chevet had three salient semicircular apses, protruding outside, the central of which, wider and higher than the flanking ones, was decorated on its outer face by six columns with Corinthian capitals in two orders, one on top of the other. It is agreed by all that this external adornment was inspired by the aedicule of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (pp. 90–1, 215).
The short introduction to this book (pp. 13–16) by the two editors poses research questions associated with the said chevet: its appearance, development, diffusion and to what extent it can be considered as an architectural model. Each of the next three papers (pp. 17–68) addresses a single church uncovered recently in western Syria. The regional studies on tri-apsidal churches start with the Limestone Massive of Northern Syria (pp. 69–96, by W. Khoury). It is followed by the Roman provinces of Phoenicia Maritima and Libanensis (pp. 97–116, by S. Garreau), those of Palaestina, Arabia and the dioceses of Acre and Tyre in Phoenicia Maritima (pp. 117–90, including a corpus of the relevant churches, by A. Michel) and those of Cyprus (pp. 191–219, including a corpus, by M.-C. Comte).
At the focus of the Dossier is the chevet of St Simeon, not its cruciform layout. The typical chevet of the paleo-Christian basilicas was tripartite. At first it had the form of a central inscribed apse with a bema in front, flanked by two quadrangular pastophoria. The tri-apsidal chevet was an innovation. It already occurred in the Holy Land in the late fourth century. The sole certain example is the Gethsemane church (p. 165), with a salient central apse flanked by two inscribed ones. It was built during the reign of the emperor Theodosius i, in the last quarter of the fourth century, about a century before St Simeon.Footnote 1
Tri-apsidal churches had been widespread in Cyprus since the early fifth century. This architectural fashion was inspired by the sumptuous church of St Epiphanius at Salamis/Constantia, the metropolis since 354. A huge basilica of five naves and a salient wide apse flanked by two much smaller inscribed ones, it was built at about the same time as Gethsemane at the initiative of the eminent metropolites (467–403/4) after whom it was named and who was buried there. It marked a new, monumental phase of church building in the island, after the catastrophic earthquakes of 332 and 342 ce. A Palestinian monk in origin, a companion of the emperor Theodosius i in his travels to Rome and to Constantinople, and a supporter of his Trinitarian policy, it is suggested by Comte, as by her predecessors (pp. 198–202, 213–15), that this tri-apsidal layout might have been inspired by the contemporary churches of the Holy City which he visited. Other than Gethsemane, she also refers to Holy Sion (pp. 199, 201, Fig. 3b), and to the Probatica (p. 169). Holy Sion was erected in the 390s, also under Theodosius i, but its chevet, assumed by her and others to be tri-apsidal, was not preserved; that of the Probatica (p. 169), originally mono-apsidal, was converted only in about the mid-sixth century to tri-apsidal, presumably with inscribed apses. Hence these two should be dismissed from the discussion about the impact of the Jerusalemite churches on St Epiphanius of Cyprus.
According to Comte, St Epiphanius served as a model for the later monumental basilicas of Cyprus. Cautiously, she also suggests possible mutual influences between the monumental fifth-century Cypriot churches and St Simeon (pp. 216–17). But one may wonder: if the external columns decorating St Simeon's were inspired by the aedicule of the Holy Sepulchre (pp. 90–1, 215), but were not applied in any Cypriot church, why should the tri-apsidal chevet of St Simeon be influenced by the Cypriot churches, rather than be borrowed directly from the contemporary Palestinian churches in a period when tri-apsidal chevets became widespread in the Holy Land?
In the Limestone Massive of northern Syria there was already a salient apse (without attached columns) in the fourth century (Nuriyé in Jebel Barisha). Thereafter it was abandoned, seemingly due to architectural difficulties (p. 75). The scheme of Qalʿat Semʿan was never reproduced in its entirety anywhere, even in its immediate vicinity. Its impact – a salient apse with attached columns on the outside – is to be found later only in the adjacent Jebels extending to the south-west of Jebel Semʿan: Jebel Barisha, Jebel Il-ʿAla and Jebel Wastani. Three salient apses (without attached columns) were encountered only in Kafr ʿAqab (pp. 69, 81–3, 86–Fig. 16) and Bahr el-Midan (pp. 17–36).
Salient tri-apsidal chevets à-la Qalʿat Semʿan (without the attached columns on the outside) are restricted to a few basilicas of Phoenicia and quite a number in Palaestina II from the late fifth century onwards (Khirbet Yarun, Beth Yerah, Tiberias, Pella West and Abila church A). Farther south, in Arabia and Palaestina III, the tri-apsidal inscribed chevet is the norm. Anne Michel also addresses churches with a central salient apse flanked by two inscribed ones, listing separately hypothetical cases, where the precise shape of the chevet is uncertain – an appropriate methodological approach. A corpus of the relevant churches (pp. 156–84), arranged according to chevet categories and provincial affiliation, follows her synthesis (pp. 116–55), and is accompanied by large-scale maps and useful summarising tables.
The diffusion in place and time of the salient tri-apsidal chevet is of particular interest. As for time, all authors are aware of the deficiency in firm chronological data in the archaeological reports of many churches (perhaps too many). Hence, there is an imminent uncertainty in tracing patterns of circuit in time. Presenting geographical distribution on maps is simpler. Salient apses, less solid architecturally than inscribed ones, and much easier (and hence less expensive) to build, are much scarcer than inscribed apses throughout the provinces surveyed, except in Cyprus (p. 194, Fig. 2 [map], pp. 250–1[table]).
M.-C. Comte delves also into the mystic symbolism of the three apses, opting for the Holy Trinity, but without a reference to any ancient literary source (pp. 214–19). However, Eusebius (Historia ecclesiastica x.iv.65), describing one of the first Christian basilicas of the East, that of Paulinus, bishop of Tyre (317 ce), linked the Holy Trinity with the three entrance gates to the church. Likewise the Testamentum Domini Jesus Christi i.19, ed. I. E. Rahmani, Mainz 1899, 22–7.
All authors associate the tri-apsidal layout with pilgrimage, acknowledging that in the absence in many cases of particular church furniture that can be attributed to a specific ceremony, it is impossible to be more specific. There must have been the cult of saints and the stationary liturgy. In quite a number of tri-apsidal churches there are good indications of the cult of saints in the lateral apses. However, in Antiochene and Apamene, prior to the occurrence of the tri-apsidal chevet, the cult of saints was held in one of the lateral chambers flanking the apse. Hence, a tri-apsidal layout was not a pre-requisite for attracting pilgrims in that it added foci for the cult of saints. An underground crypt was another arrangement.
A tri-apsidal chevet with its wall frescos and mosaics was a far more impressive manifestation of the grandeur of the Christian Church than a mono-apsidal one, thus enhancing a sense of devotion among believers.
Altogether, we have here a useful Dossier for the study of the early Christian churches of the Eastern Mediterranean.
