The ‘Pagan Chapel’: St Nicolas’ Chapel at Nijmegen and Other Romanesque Rotundas Regarded as Ancient Temples
Early Modern antiquarians, artists and their patrons had serious difficulties in seeing any differences between Ancient Romanesque architecture, as several contributions to this volume illustrate. Churches with a central hub (whether they were round, octagonal or otherwise polygonal) built before c. 1200 caused particular set of misunderstandings. All over Europe, centralised churches, whether Late Antique, Byzantine, Carolingian date, quite often regarded former pagan places worship. Then case the Pantheon Rome, which indeed been erected temple for Olympic gods only five centuries later transformed into Christian church, was projected onto all ‘old’ buildings. Sometimes, even notion lost that religion itself might past have found circular plan meaningful concept. Some antiquarians architects primary characteristic temple. The second part paper focuses on well-documented reception late fifteenth eighteenth century St Nicolas’ Chapel Nijmegen. Built eleventh medieval castle spot Roman fortification, it gave rise specific series These misinterpretations fuelled by many building materials reused construction its walls. Most especially, funeral stone, used reinforce entrance, key supposed function times: interpreted Temple Underworld, mausoleum military hero, — because origin coal shed. final discusses impact such erroneous ideas about churches seventeenth-century ecclesiastical architecture.
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