What is are characteristics of basilica?

Answer 1

The Roman basilicas were public buildings. They were large roofed halls were business was transacted and legal matters were dealt with. They often had interior colonnades which divided the space, giving aisles or arcaded spaces on one or both sides, with an apse at one end (or less often at each end), where the magistrates sat, often on a slightly raised dais (a raised platform). The central aisle tended to be wide and was higher than the flanking aisles, so that light could get through windows high up. An apse (Greek apsis, Latin absis which meant arch, vault) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome.

A basilica for large audiences also became a feature of the palaces of the rich and the governing elite. In the 3rd century AD they started to make less appearances at the forum. Instead they built opulent palaces and met their dependants (clients) every day seating on the dais of the basilica part of their palaces. A historian has described this as "the forum made private." Thus the plan of the basilica was used for smaller audience halls of the emperors, governors, and the very rich. Emperor Constantine the Great built a basilica of this type in his palace complex at Trier. Later its plan was easy to convert into a church.

The secular basilicas provided the model for the development of the first Christian churches which followed their basic plan: a large rectangular hall which was the central nave with a higher roof, an aisle on each of its sides and an apse at the end opposite the entrance. The altar was placed on a raised platform in front of the apse, mirroring the dais were of the magistrates sat in the Roman basilica. Emperor Constantine the Great built the first basilicas with a transept (a transverse section, of a building, which lies across the main body of the building; in Christian churches, it is set crosswise to the nave, forming a cruciform shape: i.e., cross-shaped) because the cult of the cross was spreading during his time. This resemblance with the cross became popular. In Italy some churches are called basilica, most notably, the Basilica of Saint Peter's.