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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue439" data-source="post: 824322" data-attributes="member: 53455">A 5th century basilica... and a museum... and a warehouse.Imagine something that’s passed off as a lapidary museum, but in practice looks more like an abandoned warehouse with tons of Roman and early Mediæval statues, capitals, columns, inscribed stones, etc., piled up haphazardly with the occasional old and washed out label trying to tell you what you’re looking at... Now, imagine that the warehouse in question is not at all a warehouse, but a formidable and admirable basilica from the late Antiquity, built in the late 400s, just as the Middle Ages were about to begin...You are in Vienne, the one in France, just south of Lyon, not Vienna in Austria, and that basilica is one of the oldest churches still standing, having been converted from its previous use by the last Gallo-Romans into a church dedicated to the saints Peter and Paul around Year 500.In spite of all the rubble and piled up chaos that prevent from enjoying the full extent of the perspectives, it is clear that this vast and high church with three naves and an impressive semi-circular apse was designed and built with an amazing sense of proportions. It is a Roman building of course, but when looking at it in general and in detail, one can understand how Romanesque will, one day, emerge and use this type of architecture as a base —with, of course Byzantine and Oriental influences, as people did travel in the Middle Ages, and a lot more than one may think.Just look at how thin and high those walls are, how slender those arches... standing there, almost untouched and unrestored, since the late 400s... Mind boggling.[ATTACH=full]410467[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]410468[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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