Listed 2 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "SERGILLA Ancient city SYRIA" .
In the villes mortes region of N Syria between Hama and Aleppo, a
prosperous agricultural center during the Late Empire and Early Byzantine times.
The village consisted of two built-up areas separated by a ravine. A church of
the 4th c. A.D. and houses, built of polygonal blocks and inhabited by peasants,
are on the E side, the larger villas and a necropolis of monumental sarcophagi
lie to the W. The andron and public baths (built by a notable at the end of the
5th c. A.D.) are between the two, at the crossroads in the bottom of the gully.
The baths are the best preserved in Syria, and have harmonious arrangements
of architectural masses. The careful masonry of the exterior has an austere appearance:
the only decorations are the moldings which underline the triangular pediments
and the semicircular windows. The inside walls, however, were plastered and painted.
The main chamber, two stories high, has a rostrum at the W end, supported by four
Corinthian columns, and a mosaic pavement of A.D. 473. A stable with feeding troughs
cut into the rock can be seen near the entrance. In front of the S facade is a
huge cistern covered with large slabs supported by stone arches.
The andron, a graceful building with two gables, was both an inn and
a meeting hall. Its S facade has two superimposed colonnades with Doric or Tuscan
capitals of a type peculiar to N Syria. On the ground floor is a chamber separated
by rock-cut feeding troughs from a stable, and on the upper story a large room
opens on the portico.
At least a dozen villas still stand, excellent examples of domestic
architecture arranged for comfort, pleasure, and security. Loggias and porticos
open to S or E onto courtyards or closed gardens, which are reached from the street
by porches that serve as vestibules. Dominating the site from the SE, the largest
villa consists of two buildings joined together. A portico of Corinthian columns
runs in front of the W house, which has a spacious room with a ceiling supported
by three stone arches. The N building has two stories of colonnades on its S facade,
and loggias and towers with staircases at each end.
The church is a basilica with three naves, built on the hillside during
the second half of the 4th c. and remodeled and enlarged in the 5th and 6th c.
The columns between the naves are topped by arches, and the apsidal choir flanked
by chapels which widen into transepts. On the exterior a gallery with porticos
runs the length of the side naves. The W facade dominates a courtyard built farther
down the slope. Agricultural buildings are attached to the church to the W, where
the upper story of the house is on the level of the court in front of the church,
and to the S, where an irregular group of elegant buildings, with porticos, towers,
and a large square chamber supported by four columns, surrounds a courtyard. In
the vicinity is a cistern and presses are cut into the rock.
J. P. Rey-Coquais, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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