In architecture, a vault (French voûte, from Italian volta) is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, … See more

Corbelled vaults, also called false vaults, with horizontally joined layers of stone have been documented since prehistoric times; in the 14th century BC from Mycenae. They were built regionally until modern times.
The real va… See more

The vault of the Basilica of Maxentius, completed by Constantine, was the last great work carried out in Rome before its fall, and two centuries pass before the next important development is found in the Church of t… See more

Although the dome constitutes the principal characteristic of the Byzantine church, throughout Asia Minor are numerous examples in which the naves are vaulted with the semicircular barrel vault, and this is the type of … See more

One good example of the fan vault is that over the staircase leading to the hall of Christ Church, Oxford, where the complete conoid is displayed in its centre carried on a central column. This vault, not built until 1640, is an … See more

It is important to note that whereas Roman vaults, like that of the Pantheon, and Byzantine vaults, like that at Hagia Sophia, were not protected from above (i.e. the vault from the inside was the same that one saw from th… See more