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97-562: The 14th-century Church of the Holy Mother of God in Donja Kamenica is notable for its unusual architectural style and fresco paintings. It is protected as a cultural monument of great importance. 43°29′23″N 22°19′31″E  /  43.48972°N 22.32528°E  / 43.48972; 22.32528 This Zaječar District , Serbia location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Church of

194-512: A roof lantern and cupola. Domes have a long architectural lineage that extends back into prehistory . Domes were built in ancient Mesopotamia , and they have been found in Persian , Hellenistic , Roman , and Chinese architecture in the ancient world , as well as among a number of indigenous building traditions throughout the world. Dome structures were common in both Byzantine architecture and Sasanian architecture , which influenced that of

291-400: A " whispering gallery " at its base that at certain places transmits distinct sound to other distant places in the gallery. The half-domes over the apses of Byzantine churches helped to project the chants of the clergy. Although this can complement music, it may make speech less intelligible, leading Francesco Giorgi in 1535 to recommend vaulted ceilings for the choir areas of a church, but

388-525: A battle against the Ottomans before 1354–1355. Against this identification is the account of Nikephoros Gregoras , who mentions that Michael Asen's widow returned childless to Constantinople after his death. Another issue with this theory is that no source mentions Michael Asen as a despot. Another theory, which was put forward by early Serbian historians and has subsequently lost support in Serbian scholarship,

485-480: A central point. The validity of this is unclear, as domes built underground with corbelled stone layers are in compression from the surrounding earth. The precise definition of "pendentive" has also been a source of academic contention, such as whether or not corbelling is permitted under the definition and whether or not the lower portions of a sail vault should be considered pendentives. Domes with pendentives can be divided into two kinds: simple and compound . In

582-713: A circle . Because they reduce the portion of the dome in tension, these domes are strong but have increased radial thrust. Many of the largest existing domes are of this shape. Masonry saucer domes, because they exist entirely in compression, can be built much thinner than other dome shapes without becoming unstable. The trade-off between the proportionately increased horizontal thrust at their abutments and their decreased weight and quantity of materials may make them more economical, but they are more vulnerable to damage from movement in their supports. Also called gadrooned , fluted , organ-piped , pumpkin , melon , ribbed , parachute , scalloped , or lobed domes, these are

679-554: A circular base alone, circular or polygonal base, circular, elliptical, or polygonal base, or an undefined area. Definitions specifying vertical sections include: semicircular, pointed, or bulbous; semicircular, segmental or pointed; semicircular, segmental, pointed, or bulbous; semicircular, segmental, elliptical, or bulbous; and high profile, hemispherical, or flattened. Sometimes called "false" domes, corbel domes achieve their shape by extending each horizontal layer of stones inward slightly farther than

776-516: 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. These can also be thought of as saucer domes upon pendentives. Sail domes are based upon the shape of a hemisphere and are not to be confused with elliptic parabolic vaults, which appear similar but have different characteristics. In addition to semicircular sail vaults there are variations in geometry such as

873-495: A city." The French word dosme came to acquire the meaning of a cupola vault, specifically, by 1660. This French definition gradually became the standard usage of the English dome in the eighteenth century as many of the most impressive Houses of God were built with monumental domes, and in response to the scientific need for more technical terms. Across the ancient world, curved-roof structures that would today be called domes had

970-450: A dome has been a matter of controversy and there are a wide variety of forms and specialized terms to describe them. A dome can rest directly upon a rotunda wall, a drum , or a system of squinches or pendentives used to accommodate the transition in shape from a rectangular or square space to the round or polygonal base of the dome. The dome's apex may be closed or may be open in the form of an oculus , which may itself be covered with

1067-429: A dome. The top of a dome is the "crown". The inner side of a dome is called the "intrados" and the outer side is called the "extrados". As with arches, the "springing" of a dome is the base level from which the dome rises and the "haunch" is the part that lies roughly halfway between the base and the top. Domes can be supported by an elliptical or circular wall called a "drum". If this structure extends to ground level,

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1164-546: A flat ceiling filled with as many coffers as possible for where preaching would occur. Cavities in the form of jars built into the inner surface of a dome may serve to compensate for this interference by diffusing sound in all directions, eliminating echoes while creating a "divine effect in the atmosphere of worship." This technique was written about by Vitruvius in his Ten Books on Architecture , which describes bronze and earthenware resonators. The material, shape, contents, and placement of these cavity resonators determine

1261-402: A hemispherical dome can be 2.5 times thinner than a semicircular arch, and a dome with the profile of an equilateral arch can be thinner still. The optimal shape for a masonry dome of equal thickness provides for perfect compression, with none of the tension or bending forces against which masonry is weak. For a particular material, the optimal dome geometry is called the funicular surface ,

1358-509: A limited number of simple elements and joints and efficiently resolve a dome's internal forces. Their efficiency is said to increase with size. Although not first invented by Buckminster Fuller , they are associated with him because he designed many geodesic domes and patented them in the United States. The hemispherical dome is a surface formed by the rotation around a vertical axis of a semicircle . Like other "rotational domes" formed by

1455-513: A low rise to span ratio or covering a rectangular plan. Sail vaults of all types have a variety of thrust conditions along their borders, which can cause problems, but have been widely used from at least the sixteenth century. The second floor of the Llotja de la Seda is covered by a series of nine meter wide sail vaults. Also called segmental domes (a term sometimes also used for cloister vaults), or calottes , these have profiles of less than half

1552-437: A number of different names reflecting a variety of shapes, traditions, and symbolic associations. The shapes were derived from traditions of pre-historic shelters made from various impermanent pliable materials and were only later reproduced as vaulting in more durable materials. The hemispherical shape often associated with domes today derives from Greek geometry and Roman standardization, but other shapes persisted, including

1649-408: A personal domain which included Donja Kamenica. Another reading of the inscription deciphers the name of the despotissa as Elena. Dome A dome (from Latin domus ) is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere . There is significant overlap with the term cupola , which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of

1746-521: A pointed and bulbous tradition inherited by some early Islamic mosques. Modern academic study of the topic has been controversial and confused by inconsistent definitions, such as those for cloister vaults and domical vaults. Dictionary definitions of the term "dome" are often general and imprecise. Generally-speaking, it "is non-specific, a blanket-word to describe an hemispherical or similar spanning element." Published definitions include: hemispherical roofs alone; revolved arches ; and vaults on

1843-546: A powerful mortar. The aggregate transitioned over the centuries to pieces of fired clay, then to Roman bricks. By the sixth century, bricks with large amounts of mortar were the principle vaulting materials. Pozzolana appears to have only been used in central Italy. Brick domes were the favored choice for large-space monumental coverings until the Industrial Age , due to their convenience and dependability. Ties and chains of iron or wood could be used to resist stresses. In

1940-450: A single arch or a set of multiple projecting nested arches placed diagonally over an internal corner. Squinch forms also include trumpet arches, niche heads (or half-domes), trumpet arches with "anteposed" arches, and muqarnas arches. Squinches transfer the weight of a dome across the gaps created by the corners and into the walls. Pendentives are triangular sections of a sphere, like concave spandrels between arches, and transition from

2037-549: A single point of origin. Their appearance in northern Russian architecture predates the Tatar occupation of Russia and so is not easily explained as the result of that influence. They became popular in the second half of the 15th century in the Low Countries of Northern Europe, possibly inspired by the finials of minarets in Egypt and Syria, and developed in the 16th and 17th centuries in

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2134-576: A smaller diameter dome immediately above them, as in the Hagia Sophia, or a drum and dome, as in many Renaissance and post-Renaissance domes, with both forms resulting in greater height. One of the earliest types of ribbed vault, the first known examples are found in the Great Mosque of Córdoba in the 10th century. Rather than meeting in the center of the dome, the ribs characteristically intersect one another off-center, forming an empty polygonal space in

2231-531: A type of dome divided at the base into curved segments, which follow the curve of the elevation . "Fluted" may refer specifically to this pattern as an external feature, such as was common in Mamluk Egypt . The "ribs" of a dome are the radial lines of masonry that extend from the crown down to the springing. The central dome of the Hagia Sophia uses the ribbed method, which accommodates a ring of windows between

2328-542: A vertical axis of a semi-ellipse . Like other "rotational domes" formed by the rotation of a curve around a vertical axis, ellipsoidal domes have circular bases and horizontal sections and are a type of "circular dome" for that reason. Geodesic domes are the upper portion of geodesic spheres. They are composed of a framework of triangles in a polyhedron pattern. The structures are named for geodesics and are based upon geometric shapes such as icosahedrons , octahedrons or tetrahedrons . Such domes can be created using

2425-776: Is called a Melon dome. A paraboloid dome is a surface formed by the rotation around a vertical axis of a sector of a parabola. Like other "rotational domes" formed by the rotation of a curve around a vertical axis, paraboloid domes have circular bases and horizontal sections and are a type of "circular dome" for that reason. Because of their shape, paraboloid domes experience only compression, both radially and horizontally. Also called sail vaults , handkerchief vaults , domical vaults (a term sometimes also applied to cloister vaults), pendentive domes (a term that has also been applied to compound domes), Bohemian vaults , or Byzantine domes , this type can be thought of as pendentives that, rather than merely touching each other to form

2522-401: Is made a complete and self-supporting ring. The upper portion of a masonry dome is always in compression and is supported laterally, so it does not collapse except as a whole unit and a range of deviations from the ideal in this shallow upper cap are equally stable. Because voussoir domes have lateral support, they can be made much thinner than corresponding arches of the same span. For example,

2619-494: Is mentioned as the ruler of Vidin shortly thereafter. The latter theory is the most established identification of despot Michael in Bulgarian historiography. A third theory, supported by both Serbian and Bulgarian researchers, is that despot Michael is an unknown son of Michael Asen IV , the first-born son of Bulgarian tsar Ivan Alexander (r. 1331–1371), who was proclaimed co-tsar shortly after his father's accession and died in

2716-477: Is not well documented. That the dome was known to early Mesopotamia may explain the existence of domes in both China and the West in the first millennium BC. Another explanation, however, is that the use of the dome shape in construction did not have a single point of origin and was common in virtually all cultures long before domes were constructed with enduring materials. Corbelled stone domes have been found from

2813-430: Is rather small in size. It measures 7.80 by 6.50 metres (25.6 ft × 21.3 ft) (according to Nikolova) or 7.70 by 6.20 metres (25.3 ft × 20.3 ft) (per Mavrodinova). The materials employed in the church's construction were chiefly chiseled stones welded together using mortar masonry. Several rows of bricks were added in order to even out the structure and to serve as decoration, particularly in

2910-475: Is richly decorated on the inside, with as many as eleven frescoes of historical figures. One of these portraits, captioned as a despot , is variously identified as an eponymous son of Bulgarian tsar Michael Shishman or as an undocumented son of co-tsar Michael Asen IV ; earlier speculation that the image depicted Serbian noble Mihailo Anđelović or Michael Shishman himself have since fallen out of favor with art historians. In addition to these early portraits,

3007-439: Is that despot Michael is to be identified with mid-15th-century Serbian noble Mihailo Anđelović , a brother of Ottoman statesman Mahmud Pasha Angelović . However, in-depth research of the frescoes has concluded that they cannot be ascribed to the 1450s, as the artistic style, the clothing and hairstyles in the portraits are uncommon for this period. Furthermore, the church seems to bear little architectural similarity to churches of

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3104-542: Is the igloo , a shelter built from blocks of compact snow and used by the Inuit , among others. The Himba people of Namibia construct "desert igloos" of wattle and daub for use as temporary shelters at seasonal cattle camps, and as permanent homes by the poor. Extraordinarily thin domes of sun-baked clay 20 feet in diameter, 30 feet high, and nearly parabolic in curve, are known from Cameroon . The historical development from structures like these to more sophisticated domes

3201-517: Is the first to have squinches create a regular octagon as a base for the dome, which then became the standard practice. Cylindrical or polygonal plan tower tombs with conical roofs over domes also exist beginning in the 11th century. The Seljuk Empire 's notables built tomb-towers, called "Turkish Triangles", as well as cube mausoleums covered with a variety of dome forms. Seljuk domes included conical, semi-circular, and pointed shapes in one or two shells. Shallow semi-circular domes are mainly found from

3298-437: Is the formerly two-storey narthex , which is notable for its unusual verticality and the towers on either side of the entrance. Judging by the models depicted in the donor's portraits inside the church, it is clear that the towers were originally further apart and the west facade with the narthex included much woodwork. The towers are topped off by sharp-pointed pyramidal elements, with additional sharp-pointed details in each of

3395-528: The Bulgarian border. The church is located at the square in the centre of the village, by the left bank of the Trgoviški Timok river and along an old military road from Pirot to Vidin . The church acquired its name due to its abundance of frescoes featuring Mary , the mother of Jesus . The prevalent opinion is that the church was constructed and painted in the early 14th century, which coincides with

3492-484: The Middle East and Central Asia , domes and drums constructed from mud brick and baked brick were sometimes covered with brittle ceramic tiles on the exterior to protect against rain and snow. The new building materials of the 19th century and a better understanding of the forces within structures from the 20th century opened up new possibilities. Iron and steel beams, steel cables, and pre-stressed concrete eliminated

3589-656: The Morava school , which dominated 15th-century Serbian architecture. It has also been revealed that in 1454–1455, Donja Kamenica was controlled by the Ottomans and in possession of a certain Yusuf, rather than part of the Serbian Despotate , and Mihailo Anđelović was never titled despot. The identity of the woman has also been a matter of debate. The inscription which accompanies her image clearly includes her title, despotissa, as well as

3686-625: The Neolithic period in the ancient Near East , and in the Middle East to Western Europe from antiquity. The kings of Achaemenid Persia held audiences and festivals in domical tents derived from the nomadic traditions of central Asia. Simple domical mausoleums existed in the Hellenistic period. The remains of a large domed circular hall in the Parthian capital city of Nyssa has been dated to perhaps

3783-712: The Passion of the Christ in the upper part of the cella, the Descent from the Cross , the mourning of Jesus, and the Dormition of the Theotokos on the west wall. The north and south walls of the cella, as well as the wall piers, bear frescoes of saints, including rare images of military saints on horseback. Murals of Saint Petka and Saint Nicholas were painted in the upper reaches of the narthex, in

3880-513: The Safavid dynasty (1501–1732) are characterized by a distinctive bulbous profile and are considered the last generation of Persian domes. They are generally thinner than earlier domes and are decorated with a variety of colored glazed tiles and complex vegetal patterns, and they were influential on those of other Islamic styles, such as the Mughal architecture of India. An exaggerated style of onion dome on

3977-470: The University of Kassel in 1983. A masonry dome produces thrusts downward and outward. They are thought of in terms of two kinds of forces at right angles from one another: meridional forces (like the meridians , or lines of longitude, on a globe) are compressive only, and increase towards the base, while hoop forces (like the lines of latitude on a globe) are in compression at the top and tension at

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4074-579: The 14th century, when this area was part of the Second Bulgarian Empire 's Vidin appanage , though alternative datings have been proposed. While small, the Church of the Holy Mother of God is notable for its unusual architectural style, in particular for its high narthex flanked by two sharp-pointed towers. These features, which hint at Hungarian or Transylvanian influences, are highly atypical for medieval Bulgarian church architecture. The church

4171-466: The 16th century. The church and its frescoes were restored in 1958. The church was declared a Monument of Culture of Great Importance in 1982, and it is protected by the Republic of Serbia. In terms of architecture, the church features a round dome and a single apse . The naos or cella has the shape of a cross, in line with the popular Byzantine cross-in-square design. Of particular interest

4268-404: The 20th century have allowed for large dome-shaped structures that deviate from the traditional compressive structural behavior of masonry domes. Popular usage of the term has expanded to mean "almost any long-span roofing system". The word " cupola " is another word for "dome", and is usually used for a small dome upon a roof or turret . "Cupola" has also been used to describe the inner side of

4365-483: The Holy Mother of God, Donja Kamenica The Church of the Holy Mother of God ( Serbian : Црква Свeте Богородице / Crkva Svete Bogorodice ; Bulgarian : Църква „Света Богородица“ , Tsarkva „Sveta Bogoroditsa“ ) is a medieval Eastern Orthodox church in the village of Donja Kamenica in Knjaževac Municipality, Zaječar District , eastern Serbia . The church is generally considered to have been built in

4462-629: The Netherlands before spreading to Germany, becoming a popular element of the baroque architecture of Central Europe. German bulbous domes were also influenced by Russian and Eastern European domes. The examples found in various European architectural styles are typically wooden. Examples include Kazan Church in Kolomenskoye and the Brighton Pavilion by John Nash . In Islamic architecture, they are typically made of masonry, rather than timber, with

4559-572: The Seljuk era. The double-shell domes were either discontinuous or continuous. The domed enclosure of the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan , built in 1086-7 by Nizam al-Mulk , was the largest masonry dome in the Islamic world at that time, had eight ribs, and introduced a new form of corner squinch with two quarter domes supporting a short barrel vault. In 1088 Tāj-al-Molk, a rival of Nizam al-Mulk, built another dome at

4656-588: The ancient Greek and Latin domus ("house"), which, up through the Renaissance, labeled a revered house, such as a Domus Dei , or "House of God", regardless of the shape of its roof. This is reflected in the uses of the Italian word duomo , the German/Icelandic/Danish word dom ("cathedral"), and the English word dome as late as 1656, when it meant a "Town-House, Guild-Hall, State-House, and Meeting-House in

4753-424: The base, with the transition in a hemispherical dome occurring at an angle of 51.8 degrees from the top. The thrusts generated by a dome are directly proportional to the weight of its materials. Grounded hemispherical domes generate significant horizontal thrusts at their haunches. The outward thrusts in the lower portion of a hemispherical masonry dome can be counteracted with the use of chains incorporated around

4850-570: The case of the simple dome , the pendentives are part of the same sphere as the dome itself; however, such domes are rare. In the case of the more common compound dome , the pendentives are part of the surface of a larger sphere below that of the dome itself and form a circular base for either the dome or a drum section. The fields of engineering and architecture have lacked common language for domes, with engineering focused on structural behavior and architecture focused on form and symbolism. Additionally, new materials and structural systems in

4947-463: The center. Geometry is a key element of the designs, with the octagon being perhaps the most popular shape used. Whether the arches are structural or purely decorative remains a matter of debate. The type may have an eastern origin, although the issue is also unsettled. Examples are found in Spain, North Africa, Armenia, Iran, France, and Italy. The ellipsoidal dome is a surface formed by the rotation around

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5044-420: The centuries from mud, snow, stone, wood, brick, concrete, metal, glass, and plastic. The symbolism associated with domes includes mortuary , celestial , and governmental traditions that have likewise altered over time. The domes of the modern world can be found over religious buildings, legislative chambers, sports stadiums, and a variety of functional structures. The English word "dome" ultimately derives from

5141-508: The church of Santo Tomás de las Ollas in Spain has an oval dome over its oval plan. Other examples of medieval oval domes can be found covering rectangular bays in churches. Oval plan churches became a type in the Renaissance and popular in the Baroque style. The dome built for the basilica of Vicoforte by Francesco Gallo was one of the largest and most complex ever made. Although the ellipse

5238-501: The circle being considered the most perfect of forms. According to E. Baldwin Smith, from the late Stone Age the dome-shaped tomb was used as a reproduction of the ancestral, god-given shelter made permanent as a venerated home of the dead. The instinctive desire to do this resulted in widespread domical mortuary traditions across the ancient world, from the stupas of India to the tholos tombs of Iberia . By Hellenistic and Roman times,

5335-459: The circumference or with external buttressing, although cracking along the meridians is natural. For small or tall domes with less horizontal thrust, the thickness of the supporting arches or walls can be enough to resist deformation, which is why drums tend to be much thicker than the domes they support. Unlike voussoir arches, which require support for each element until the keystone is in place, domes are stable during construction as each level

5432-456: The comparable shape in three dimensions to a catenary curve for a two-dimensional arch. Adding a weight to the top of a pointed dome, such as the heavy cupola at the top of Florence Cathedral , changes the optimal shape to more closely match the actual pointed shape of the dome. The pointed profiles of many Gothic domes more closely approximate the optimal dome shape than do hemispheres, which were favored by Roman and Byzantine architects due to

5529-400: The corners of a square bay to the circular base of a dome. The curvature of the pendentives is that of a sphere with a diameter equal to the diagonal of the square bay. Pendentives concentrate the weight of a dome into the corners of the bay. The earliest domes in the Middle East were built with mud-brick and, eventually, with baked brick and stone. Domes of wood allowed for wide spans due to

5626-443: The dome's surface of revolution, or be straight lengths with the connecting points or nodes lying upon the surface of revolution. Single-layer structures are called frame or skeleton types and double-layer structures are truss types, which are used for large spans. When the covering also forms part of the structural system, it is called a stressed skin type. The formed surface type consists of sheets joined at bent edges to form

5723-526: The dome, which features more elaborate brickwork. The frescoes inside the church are commonly dated to the 14th–15th century, though they follow a standard compositional model which had been established in Bulgarian church decoration since the 13th century. Unusually, most of the captions which accompany the images are in Byzantine Greek , though a few are in Old Church Slavonic . In terms of style,

5820-538: The domical tholos had become the customary cemetery symbol. Domes and tent-canopies were also associated with the heavens in Ancient Persia and the Hellenistic-Roman world. A dome over a square base reflected the geometric symbolism of those shapes. The circle represented perfection, eternity, and the heavens. The square represented the earth. An octagon was intermediate between the two. The distinct symbolism of

5917-475: The effect they have: reinforcing certain frequencies or absorbing them. Also called a corbelled dome , cribbed dome , or false dome , these are different from a 'true dome' in that they consist of purely horizontal layers. As the layers get higher, each is slightly cantilevered , or corbeled , toward the center until meeting at the top. A monumental example is the Mycenaean Treasury of Atreus from

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6014-466: The first century AD, showing "...the existence of a monumental domical tradition in Central Asia that had hitherto been unknown and which seems to have preceded Roman Imperial monuments or at least to have grown independently from them." It likely had a wooden dome. Persian architecture likely inherited an architectural tradition of dome-building dating back to the earliest Mesopotamian domes. Due to

6111-862: The first century BC, such as the Tabularium of Rome from 78 BC. Others include the Baths of Antoninus in Carthage (145–160) and the Palatine Chapel at Aachen (13th – 14th century). 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 . Also called domes on pendentives or pendentive domes (a term also applied to sail vaults), compound domes have pendentives that support

6208-611: The first examples in Asia Minor date to around 4000 B.C. The geometry was eventually defined using combinations of circular arcs, transitioning at points of tangency. If the Romans created oval domes, it was only in exceptional circumstances. The Roman foundations of the oval plan Church of St. Gereon in Cologne point to a possible example. Domes in the Middle Ages also tended to be circular, though

6305-564: The forefront of Persian architecture as a result. Pre-Islamic domes in Persia are commonly semi-elliptical, with pointed domes and those with conical outer shells being the majority of the domes in the Islamic periods. The area of north-eastern Iran was, along with Egypt, one of two areas notable for early developments in Islamic domed mausoleums, which appear in the tenth century. The Samanid Mausoleum in Transoxiana dates to no later than 943 and

6402-447: The heavenly or cosmic tent stemming from the royal audience tents of Achaemenid and Indian rulers was adopted by Roman rulers in imitation of Alexander the Great , becoming the imperial baldachin . This probably began with Nero , whose " Golden House " also made the dome a feature of palace architecture. The dual sepulchral and heavenly symbolism was adopted by early Christians in both

6499-427: The interior walls of the church were painted with canonical murals, which can stylistically be assigned to the 14th–15th century. The church was reconstructed in 1958 and has been under Serbian state protection since 1982. The Church of the Holy Mother of God lies in the eastern Serbian village of Donja Kamenica, some 10 to 15 kilometres (6.2 to 9.3 mi) southeast of Knjaževac , northeast of Niš and not far from

6596-482: The late Bronze Age . A single or double layer space frame in the form of a dome, a braced dome is a generic term that includes ribbed , Schwedler , three-way grid , lamella or Kiewitt , lattice , and geodesic domes . The different terms reflect different arrangements in the surface members. Braced domes often have a very low weight and are usually used to cover spans of up to 150 meters. Often prefabricated, their component members can either lie on

6693-501: The lifetimes of the individuals most widely accepted as represented by the figures depicted in the church's frescoes. At the time, the village of Donja Kamenica, along with much of the Timok Valley region, belonged to the Vidin appanage of the Second Bulgarian Empire . However, alternative theories place the construction of the church in the mid-14th century, the mid-15th century or even

6790-411: The lower one until they meet at the top. A "false" dome may also refer to a wooden dome. The Italian use of the term finto , meaning "false", can be traced back to the 17th century in the use of vaulting made of reed mats and gypsum mortar. "True" domes are said to be those whose structure is in a state of compression, with constituent elements of wedge-shaped voussoirs , the joints of which align with

6887-415: The man holds a sceptre with a cross. He extends his hand to a woman, clad in a despotissa's attire and wearing a fitting crown. The inscription next to the figure of the man has been deciphered either as “Michael despot, in Christ [our] God... faithful” or “Michael despot, in Christ [our] God faithful, son of Tsar Michael”. Either reading presents significant challenges as to the proper identification of

6984-508: The murals have much in common with churches from the southwestern Bulgarian lands. Biblical scenes and figures depicted in the Church of the Holy Mother of God include the worshiping of the Christ child as the eucharistic victim (the Melismos) in the lower part of the apse, the raising of Lazarus , the Annunciation , Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem , Judas Iscariot 's betrayal of Jesus,

7081-449: The need for external buttressing and enabled much thinner domes. Whereas earlier masonry domes may have had a radius to thickness ratio of 50, the ratio for modern domes can be in excess of 800. The lighter weight of these domes not only permitted far greater spans, but also allowed for the creation of large movable domes over modern sports stadiums. Experimental rammed earth domes were made as part of work on sustainable architecture at

7178-675: The opposite end of the same mosque with interlacing ribs forming five-pointed stars and pentagons. This is considered the landmark Seljuk dome, and may have inspired subsequent patterning and the domes of the Il-Khanate period. The use of tile and of plain or painted plaster to decorate dome interiors, rather than brick, increased under the Seljuks. Beginning in the Ilkhanate , Persian domes achieved their final configuration of structural supports, zone of transition, drum, and shells, and subsequent evolution

7275-581: The place of a prince during royal ceremonies. Over time such domes became primarily focal points for decoration or the direction of prayer. The use of domes in mausoleums can likewise reflect royal patronage or be seen as representing the honor and prestige that domes symbolized, rather than having any specific funerary meaning. The wide variety of dome forms in medieval Islam reflected dynastic, religious, and social differences as much as practical building considerations. Because domes are concave from below, they can reflect sound and create echoes. A dome may have

7372-437: The portrayed person, who was clearly a despot, bore the name Michael, and, if the latter reading is correct, was the son of an eponymous tsar . As a result, various theories have been proposed by Bulgarian and Serbian researchers alike. Early Bulgarian historian Petar Nikov suggested that despot Michael of the Donja Kamenica church is identical with Bulgarian tsar Michael Shishman (r. 1323–1330) who, before his accession to

7469-408: The pyramids' four corners. The towers and their design are entirely unusual and unprecedented in medieval Bulgarian church architecture. Art historian Nikola Mavrodinov believes these resemble Gothic architecture , though a more modern researcher, Bistra Nikolova, dismisses his assessment and considers these an influence from Hungary or Transylvania . Despite its monumental appearance, the church

7566-458: The relatively light and flexible nature of the material and were the normal method for domed churches by the 7th century, although most domes were built with the other less flexible materials. Wooden domes were protected from the weather by roofing, such as copper or lead sheeting. Domes of cut stone were more expensive and never as large, and timber was used for large spans where brick was unavailable. Roman concrete used an aggregate of stone with

7663-555: The rest of Europe and Islam , respectively, in the Middle Ages . The domes of European Renaissance architecture spread from Italy in the early modern period , while domes were frequently employed in Ottoman architecture at the same time. Baroque and Neoclassical architecture took inspiration from Roman domes. Advancements in mathematics, materials, and production techniques resulted in new dome types. Domes have been constructed over

7760-417: The ribs at the base of the dome. The central dome of St. Peter's Basilica also uses this method. Cultures from pre-history to modern times constructed domed dwellings using local materials. Although it is not known when the first dome was created, sporadic examples of early domed structures have been discovered. The earliest discovered may be four small dwellings made of Mammoth tusks and bones. The first

7857-471: The rotation of a curve around a vertical axis, hemispherical domes have circular bases and horizontal sections and are a type of "circular dome" for that reason. They experience vertical compression along their meridians, but horizontally experience compression only in the portion above 51.8 degrees from the top. Below this point, hemispherical domes experience tension horizontally, and usually require buttressing to counteract it. According to E. Baldwin Smith, it

7954-402: The round building may be called a " rotunda ". Drums are also called " tholobates " and may or may not contain windows. A " tambour " or " lantern " is the equivalent structure over a dome's oculus, supporting a cupola. When the base of the dome does not match the plan of the supporting walls beneath it (for example, a dome's circular base over a square bay ), techniques are employed to bridge

8051-577: The same person, the main donor. The third composition is in the cella and depicts two men: a monk and a priest. Of greatest interest is the fourth composition of historical figures, a young man and a woman, which was painted on the lowest west wall of the narthex and includes inscriptions in Old Church Slavonic. The figures are painted facing the viewer. The man's red clothing is covered in pearls and double-headed eagles , and he wears an archaic-looking despot 's crown on his head. In his right hand,

8148-490: The scarcity of wood in many areas of the Iranian plateau and Greater Iran , domes were an important part of vernacular architecture throughout Persian history. The Persian invention of the squinch , a series of concentric arches forming a half-cone over the corner of a room, enabled the transition from the walls of a square chamber to an octagonal base for a dome in a way reliable enough for large constructions and domes moved to

8245-404: The south and the north tower respectively. Besides religious imagery, the frescoes of the Donja Kamenica church also include eleven portraits of contemporary historical figures, separated into four compositions. Three of the compositions are uncaptioned, making the identification of the people practically impossible. The first composition is located in the cella and depicts two men preserved from

8342-465: The structure. Also called domical vaults (a term sometimes also applied to sail vaults), polygonal domes , coved domes , gored domes , segmental domes (a term sometimes also used for saucer domes), paneled vaults , or pavilion vaults , these are domes that maintain a polygonal shape in their horizontal cross section. The component curved surfaces of these vaults are called severies , webs , or cells . The earliest known examples date to

8439-453: The thick and heavy bulging portion serving to buttress against the tendency of masonry domes to spread at their bases. The Taj Mahal is a famous example. An oval dome is a dome of oval shape in plan, profile, or both. The term comes from the Latin ovum , meaning "egg". The earliest oval domes were used by convenience in corbelled stone huts as rounded but geometrically undefined coverings, and

8536-436: The throne, was despot of Vidin. However, Michael Shishman's father was named Shishman , not Michael, and was usually titled despot rather than tsar. In turn, Mavrodinov proposed the theory that despot Michael is an otherwise unknown son of Michael Shishman, who was installed as despot of Vidin by his father after his coronation in 1323. In any case, this unknown son of Michael Shishman was probably dead by 1331 because Belaur

8633-544: The two shells of the dome have significantly different profiles, which spread rapidly throughout the region. The development of taller drums also continued into the Timurid period. The large, bulbous, fluted domes on tall drums that are characteristic of 15th century Timurid architecture were the culmination of the Central Asian and Iranian tradition of tall domes with glazed tile coverings in blue and other colors. The domes of

8730-505: The two. One technique is to use corbelling, progressively projecting horizontal layers from the top of the supporting wall to the base of the dome, such as the corbelled triangles often used in Seljuk and Ottoman architecture. The simplest technique is to use diagonal lintels across the corners of the walls to create an octagonal base. Another is to use arches to span the corners, which can support more weight. A variety of these techniques use what are called " squinches ". A squinch can be

8827-477: The use of domes in architecture and in the ciborium , a domical canopy like the baldachin used as a ritual covering for relics or the church altar . The celestial symbolism of the dome, however, was the preeminent one by the Christian era . In the early centuries of Islam, domes were closely associated with royalty. A dome built in front of the mihrab of a mosque, for example, was at least initially meant to emphasize

8924-417: The waist up, of which one holds a model of the church, and a child, of which only the head is visible today. The second composition was painted on the upper west wall of the narthex and portrays a man, a woman, a boy and a girl, with the man also holding a model of the church, a common symbol of donorship. Art historian Dragana Frfulanović believes that the images of men holding models in both compositions depict

9021-427: The word “daughter”. Based on a possible reading of her name as Anna, she has been identified as Anna Neda , the Serbian wife of Michael Shishman, which is in line with the first identification of the despot. Nikolova believes that it is possible that the woman is Anna Neda even if the despot is her son rather than her husband. She theorises that Anna Neda settled in Vidin after Michael Shishman's second marriage and owned

9118-515: Was a shape likely known to the Assyrians, defined by Greek theoretical mathematicians, and standardized by Roman builders. Bulbous domes bulge out beyond their base diameters, offering a profile greater than a hemisphere. An onion dome is a greater than hemispherical dome with a pointed top in an ogee profile. They are found in the Near East , Middle East , Persia, and India and may not have had

9215-579: Was found by a farmer in Mezhirich , Ukraine, in 1965 while he was digging in his cellar and archaeologists unearthed three more. They date from 19,280 – 11,700 BC. In modern times , the creation of relatively simple dome-like structures has been documented among various indigenous peoples around the world. The wigwam was made by Native Americans using arched branches or poles covered with grass or hides. The Efé people of central Africa construct similar structures , using leaves as shingles. Another example

9312-512: Was known, in practice, domes of this shape were created by combining segments of circles. Popular in the 16th and 17th centuries, oval and elliptical plan domes can vary their dimensions in three axes or two axes. A sub-type with the long axis having a semicircular section is called a Murcia dome, as in the Chapel of the Junterones at Murcia Cathedral . When the short axis has a semicircular section, it

9409-405: Was restricted to variations in form and shell geometry. Characteristic of these domes are the use of high drums and several types of discontinuous double-shells, and the development of triple-shells and internal stiffeners occurred at this time. The construction of tomb towers decreased. The 7.5 meter wide double dome of Soltan Bakht Agha Mausoleum (1351–1352) is the earliest known example in which

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