d cities of Central Syria a group of
exceptional and most interesting buildings, both secular and sacred,
exists, which, as described by De Voguee,[33] seem to display a free
and very original treatment based upon Roman more than Byzantine
ideas. We illustrate the exterior of one of these, the church at
Turmanin (Fig. 164). This is a building divided into a nave and aisles
and with a vestibule. Two low towers flank the central gable, and it
will be noticed that openings of depressed proportion, mostly
semicircular headed, and with the arches usually springing from square
piers, mark the building; while the use made of columns strongly
resembles the manner in which in later times they were introduced by
the Gothic architects.

[Illustration: FIG. 165.--TOWER OF A RUSSIAN CHURCH.]

FOOTNOTES:

[29] _I.e._ the City of Constantine.

[30] "The edge of the world: the knot which links together East and
West; the centre in which all extremes combine," was the not
overcharged description given of Constantinople by one of her own
bishops.

[31] For an illustration see Fig. 187.

[32] 'Lectures on Mediaeval Architecture.'

[33] 'Syrie Centrale.'

CHAPTER XIII.

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE.

The term Romanesque is here used to indicate a style of Christian
architecture, founded on Roman art, which prevailed throughout Western
Europe from the close of the period of basilican architecture to the
rise of Gothic; except in those isolated districts where the influence
of Byzantium is visible. By some writers the significance of the word
is restricted within narrower limits; but excellent authorities can be
adduced for the employment of it in the wide sense here indicated.
Indeed some difficulty exists in deciding what shall and what shall
not be termed Romanesque, if any more restricted definition of its
meaning is adopted; while under this general term, if applied broadly,
many closely allied local varieties--as, for example, Lombard,
Rhenish, Romance, Saxon, and Norman--can be conveniently included.

The spectacle which Europe presented after the removal of the seat of
empire to Byzantium and the incursions of the Northern tribes was
melancholy in the extreme. Nothing but the church retained any
semblance of organised existence; and when at last some kind of order
began to emerge from a chaos of universal ruin, and churches and
monastic buildings began to be built in Western Europe, all of them
looked to Rome,