Early Christian architecture, developing af ter the fall of Rome, used or copied Roman buildings. At Ravenna interesting monuments of this period were the tomb of Galla Placidia, built in the middle of the 5th century, and the tomb of Theodoric, erected early in the 6th century, a two storied structure, roofed by a single stone 36 feet in diameter. Basilicas com memorating scenes in the life of Christ were erected as early as the 4th century in Syria, at Bethlehem, at the sepulchre near Jerusalem and on the site of the temple.
The principal monumental buildings of the Byzantine period were in Syria, where from the 4th to the 8th century what we call Syrian architecture was in full luxuriance. The noble tombs of cut stone are, together with the churches and villas built of the same material, rather Grzco-Syrian than strictly Byzantine in construction and design. Romanesque architec ture in western Europe has not left us many monuments of great size and importance, but some tombs of great beauty remain in the churches of England, France and Germany.
Prominent monuments of the Gothic period were erected in the cathedrals at Paris, Char tres, Rouen, Amiens, Rheims and in the Sainte Chapelle, Paris. In England, early English Gothic is well shown in the crowd of altar tombs, some of them with canopies, which are found in the churches, especially in Westminster Abbey. Memorial chapels were also built of great richness and splendor. A good example of the decorative period is to be found in Henry VII's chapel at Westminster. Italian Gothic monuments include many of the wall tombs in the cathedrals at Florence, Sienna and Milan.
The Renaissance is represented by the Flor entine wall-tombs of Santa Croce and the Vene tian ones of the churches of Saints Giovanni e Paolo, the Frani and many others. The prin
cipal monument of Saracenic architecture in India is the Taj Mahal in India, built in the middle of the 16th century, but the tomb mosques of the caliphs near Cairo are equally fine as architecture, however inferior in cost and splendor.
In the 19th century, a list of monuments should certainly include the triumphal arches of the French empire, the arch of the Carrousel and the Arc de l'Etoile, the Pantheon, the Madeleine, the Colonne Juillet; the Siegesthor in Munich and the Brandenburger Thor in Berlin; in America, the tomb of General Grant in New York, the many Lincoln and Washing ton monuments in different cities, and a host of statues, some equestrian, for which see Sctrixruitz.
Bartlett,