Tetrapylon
A tetrapylon (plural tetrapyla ; from ancient Greek τετράπυλος “four- gate ”, Latin quadrifrons “four-forehead”) is a four-sided gate monument that was often found in Roman architecture . Its base is usually square, but can also be rectangular , as on the engraved arch in Verona , and have narrower side passages. The passageways are flanked either by a group of four columns or by massive pillars.
Tetrapyla were built from the Augustan period and were used until the Constantinian period. Their buildings spread from Italy and the west in the time of the early Principate to North Africa in the middle Roman Empire , and finally to the east of the Roman Empire .
In the Roman Empire, the buildings were often placed in the center of the cities to emphasize road crossings. The tetrapylon in the narrower sense, also called tetrakionion, is a structure made up of columns, in which walls play a subordinate role. They mostly consist of four groups of columns, over which beams of architrave and frieze form a roof wreath. The roof solution can be designed differently. There are also solutions without a roof in Syria and Arabia . Well-preserved examples can be found above all in the east of the Roman Empire.
In contrast, the Quadrifrons is derived from the Roman arch architecture, the city gate or the arch of honor. Accordingly, its most important external features are formed from mighty rectangular or angled pillars , which are connected by barrel-vaulted passages, usually in the form of groin vaults . A dome often forms the roof solution, but pyramid roofs are also used. Examples can be found in Italy, in North Africa and in the west of the Roman Empire.
A tetrapylon was usually planned as a gateway or monument of honor, rarely also as a sign of victory. If it served as an entrance gate into a delimited sacred area ( temenos ), it is called propylon .
Well-known examples are:
- the Galerius Arch in Thessaloniki
- the Arch of Septimius Severus in Leptis Magna
- the Heidentor at Carnuntum
- the Arch of Janus in Rome
- the tetrapylon in Capera
- the tetrapylon in Palmyra
- the Caracalla Arch in Tebessa
- the tetrapylon in Anjar
literature
- Josef Mühlenbrock: Tetrapylon. On the history of the four-gate arched monument in Roman architecture . Scriptorium, Morschen 2003, ISBN 3-932610-26-1
