The Early Byzantine Churches of Cilicia and Isauria

The architecture of the great 'Domed Basilicas' of 6th-century Constantinople, Hagia Sophia above all, continues to be a source of wonder, but its origins and evolutions remain unclear. In the absence of late 5th-century monuments from the capital, the churches of Cilicia and Isauria in southern Asia Minor can serve as indicators for the patterns that were developing. These regions have a dense concentration of surviving early monuments, especially from the reign of the Isaurian emperor Zeno (474-91), and the Isaurians were famed for their building skills.The present volume combines a catalogue of these churches with a detailed analysis of their significance for the development of ecclesiastical architecture in the 4th-6th centuries.