Churches - Monasteries

Before the time of the persecutions, as well as in the intervals between them, Christians living in imperial cities used either converted private homes or new purpose-built structures as places of worship. Once Christianity became the official state religion, churches acquired specific characteristics and gradually became centres of social and economic activity, playing an important role in the lives of cities and their inhabitants.
 
The integration of Christian churches into the town plan was a gradual affair; the first were founded on properties belonging to the emperor or granted by the state. In the 5^th and 6^th century, churches were erected at key sites in the town plan, occupying areas close to or inside economic centres of old and thus becoming local landmarks. Many public buildings and abandoned pagan temples have survived until the present thanks to being converted into places of Christian worship. In the middle and late Byzantine period churches were usually built on empty land or on major city streets, forming the nuclei around which neighborhoods were organized. In subsequent times they even lent their names to the surrounding neighborhoods.

Byzantines cities also had numerous monasteries. Although the first were set up in the countryside, far from cities, from the 6^th century onwards monasteries were founded within the city walls. Integrated into the urban structure, they rapidly became hives of intellectual activity with significant economic power. Each was run by the rule governing life within it; the number of buildings it had depended on size, wealth and the services offered to the community. Monasteries were usually isolated from the outside world by a high wall. Most of the buildings were arranged around the main church, which was the hub of monastic life. Important buildings included the refectory, the kitchen and the monks’ cells.

Other areas key to everyday life were the storerooms, the guest areas and the baths, while adjacent buildings were sometimes used as hospitals for both monks and lay patients, workhouses, orphanages and schools. Finally, many monasteries had libraries of note, while some were important centres for producing and copying manuscript books.

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