Does Sunrise Day Correlate with Eastern Orientation of Byzantine Churches on Significant Solar Dates and Saint's Days? A Preliminary Study

Abstract

A preliminary investigation into the orientation of twelve Greek Byzantine churches towards the east is made in relation to the day of sunrise. Measurements were carried out using magnetic compass with inclinometer and GPS (azimuth, latitude, angular altitude of horizon) while declination corrections included a) local magnetic declination and b) refraction. The position of sunrise in the horizon as well as during morning hours was computed with in-house software. Accounting for the differences between Gregorian and Julian calendars, orientation of the nave towards spring and/or autumn, i. e. around the two equinoxes, was found for most churches. Orientations toward the summer solstice and the name day of the saint were also found.

Mathematical-geographical analysis of the orientation of St John’s church of the Studenica monastery

“…The methodology has been worked out well and, apart from numerous papers which study single churches, there are studies in which the churches on the territory of the whole country have been considered, for example on the territory of Austria (Firnies & Köberl, 1989) or Slovenia (Čaval, 2009). From the point of view of researches which are to be carried out on the territory of the Republic of Serbia, special significance have papers with the methodology of studying the orientation of Orthodox (Byzantine) churches on the territory of Greece (Liritzis & Vassiliou, 2007;Pantazis, Sinachopoulos, Lambrou, & Korakitis, 2004).…”

Essays in Archaeology and Archaeometry and the Hellenic Contribution to Egyptology

“…Analysis of specific orientations of temples, buildings, altars, natural markers is made to connect them to specific deities, sacred attributes, rites, delivering oracles, major cultural events [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] and for the determination of time [15][16][17][18].…”

The Sunlight and the Hidden Paintings in the Church of San Lorenzo in Torino

“…In several publications, we find discussed the astronomical orientations of churches and cathedrals and the possible alignments of them along the directions of sunrise [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. However, religious buildings can be linked to the sunlight by other optical effects, and these effects that can be evidenced by some research work, such as in [20,21].…”