Rethinking Sacred Spaces: Religious Architecture of Western Rough Cilicia

Date

2026-3-27

Author

Çoruh, Selin

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This thesis presents a comprehensive, typologically segmented, and regionally contextualized analysis of ecclesiastical architecture in Western Rough Cilicia during the Early and Middle Byzantine periods. Historically marginalized within mainstream Constantinople-centric scholarship, this rugged maritime frontier is re-evaluated not as a zone of passive decline but as a site of dynamic architectural innovation. By systematically documenting churches located in Byzantine settlements across the coastal regions from the Alara River to Antiochia ad Cragum, the research maps the radical typological evolution from the open processional basilicas of Late Antiquity to the heavily fortified single-nave chapels and centralized triconchs of the Middle Byzantine kastron. Employing a multidisciplinary methodology that integrates stratigraphic reading, spatial analysis, and digital documentation, the study challenges traditional center-periphery paradigms. It introduces refined typological parameters including plan typology, construction parameters, and space articulation to decode how local builders negotiated severe environmental constraints and chronic geopolitical instability. The study investigates the systemic integration of sacred space with defensive and hydraulic infrastructure. Furthermore, it analyzes local iconographic programs and the socio-economic embeddedness of rural churches within their agrarian contexts. Ultimately, this research restores historical agency to the builders of the Taurus coastal band, proving that the religious architecture of Western Rough Cilicia was a highly adaptive and resilient spatial system that successfully fused military survival, economic production, and spiritual salvation on the edge of the Byzantine Empire.

Subject Keywords

Byzantine Architecture, Western Rough Cilicia, Ecclesiastical Architecture, Sacred Spaces, Kastron

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/119059

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis