Architectural church styles on Romanian territory

The styles used for building of churches in Romania were of all kinds, beginning with
the basilicas style dating since IV century and coming to an end with the byzantine style in all
kinds and forms which were used for Romanian church architecture.
The byzantine style used for church architecture is an evolution of the basilica style
specific to the first Christian churches; the basilicas style taking simple nave
forms maintained during the ages in Occident, while in the East begins to be
replaced with a new form of art, since VI century, the byzantine art, with its
first architectural monuments (for example sanctuaries from Asia Minor and
Sf. Sofia from Constantinople) which are in fact basilicas with domes. The
byzantine style is the result from mixing the classical Hellenistic elements
and the oriental ones in the art of construction, which came from Syria and
Asia Minor and from Persia, Mesopotamia and Armenia, where, specific
types of buildings are on a central plane (polygonal, cross-shaped, round )
and these kind of buildings have domes. The straight line for the horizontal and vertical plane
and the right angles are replaced with the curves meaning perfect circles or semicircles,
specific in oriental architecture. The curved line and the rounded walls which appear in
basilicas only at the sanctuary apsis and at the arches which connect the ends of the interior
columns are multiplied as follows: the straight walls are mixed with the rounded walls (apsis)
or cylindrical walls (hemicycle) and not only for sanctuary but for long lateral walls too and
the flat ceiling system is replaced with the rounded roof or vaulted roof in form of cylindrical
vaults supported by arches, in form of half spheres or in form of a dome placed in the center
of the edifice (Nave), and supported by walls with the help of pendants (meaning the four
spherical triangles between the sustaining arches).
In time the vault limits its dimensions and it gets above the roof with the help of the capstan
(cylindrical or polygonal) which is pierced by windows and will take the denomination of
turret. The apparition of the turret will modify the general plan of the churches, because it will
mark the cross point of the longitudinal nave with the transversal nave and from its
intersection results a Greek cross (with equal braces) or Latin cross (with a longer western
brace). In this way appears the central cross frame, which becomes the main characteristic for
the Byzantine architecture.
The nave-shape church, of the basilica plane, becomes the cross-shape church of the new
style, and it appeals the sacred instrument of the resurrection: the cross. When the transversal
brace of the cross doesnt extend the lateral walls it remains in the interior part of the church,
but when it crosses the lateral walls, the cross-shape plan becomes visible. If the transversal
walls have rounded sides then this shape create the three-apsidal plane which like I said above
it will become specific for the Byzantine style (This form dates back from VI century located
first in Israel country which belonged at that time of the Byzantine Imperium). The interior
surface is now devised in three sectors, the sanctuary, the nave and the prior-nave. The nave
and the sanctuary is divided by the iconostasis and between the nave and pre-nave it will be
elevated a wall with three doors which will replace the anterior columns which will remain
only as sustaining bars of the vault or they will confine the lateral walls. As a conclusion the
features of this style are the cross-shape form and the three-apsidal plane (nave, prior-nave
and sanctuary) .