Monuments of the early church . could in no way be reconciled with the sheermass of the upper wall, unbroken save by a few windows. Theproblem of the facade was to be solved only by incorporating 130 ARCHITECTURE the vestibule or portico more closely with the church, as wasdone with such signal effect in Central Syria. But this brings us to another story: these churches of Cen-tral Syria — most of them of the fourth or fifth century — standin the sharpest contrast to all other architecture of the earlyChristian period. Looking at such a fagade as that which isrepresented in Fig. 32, it is hard
Monuments of the early church . could in no way be reconciled with the sheermass of the upper wall, unbroken save by a few windows. Theproblem of the facade was to be solved only by incorporating 130 ARCHITECTURE the vestibule or portico more closely with the church, as wasdone with such signal effect in Central Syria. But this brings us to another story: these churches of Cen-tral Syria — most of them of the fourth or fifth century — standin the sharpest contrast to all other architecture of the earlyChristian period. Looking at such a fagade as that which isrepresented in Fig. 32, it is hard to believe that it is not at leastseven centuries later. In point of fact, we are compelled tobelieve that the early Norman churches in the neighborhood ofthe great crusading ports of Southern France and Apulia weredirectly inspired by these Syrian basilicas. Syria, it must beremembered, was one of the most flourishing centres of earlyChristian life, and it was not only in close contact with Greek (^ P^ ill III! nilnil m m.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectchristi, bookyear1901
