EXPLORING THE TIES BETWEEN THESSALONIKI AND ZADAR IN LATE ANTIQUITY

Sa？etak This paper aims to provide further insight on the connection between two centers from Late Antiquity, Thessaloniki and Zadar. The connection between the two was noted 20 years ago in the use of similar architectural forms of early Christian basilicas, particularly in the opening of the side walls by the use of mullioned windows. Another architectural semblance has been noted recently in the structures of the same period, i.e. in the key aspect of the Christian milieu - the baptistery. The Zadar baptistery has proven to be a smaller version of the Thessaloniki baptistery. They have a hexagonal layout on the outside and hexafoil on the inside, opening up in three doors. Their dimensions vary - the Thessaloniki baptistery is a monumental building, twice the size of the Zadar baptistery. The Thessaloniki baptistery has parallels with the central buildings of Constantinople - the auditorium of the Antiochos palace, which was converted into the church of St. Euphemia in the 6th century, and the so-called Hagiasmi S. Iohannes. Sacral architecture from the East was thus transposed to the episcopal complex in Zadar via Thessaloniki, which explains the unique design of the early Christian buildings there