Round church


A round church is a church with a completely circular plan, thus a rotunda in architectural terms.
There are many Nordic round churches in Sweden and Denmark ; round churches were popular in Scandinavia in the 11th and early 12th centuries.
Round churches should not be confused with the older types of round-tower church constructions. Churches with many-sided polygonal shapes are likewise colloquially referred to as 'round'.

Round churches by country

Armenia

in Vagharshapat, often cited as the world's largest round church during its existence in the Middle Ages

Bosnia

, Sarajevo

Brazil

Bulgaria

Canada

  • Our Lady of Victory Church, Inuvik
  • St. Jude's Cathedral, Iqaluit
  • Saint George's Round Church, Halifax

    Croatia

  • Church of Saint Vitus, Rijeka
  • Church of Saint Donatus, Zadar

    Czech Republic

  • Rotunda of St. Catherine, Znojmo
  • Rotunda of St. Peter and Paul, Budeč -the oldest, believed to have been built between 895-915.
  • Rotunda of St. Peter and Paul, Starý Plzenec
  • Rotunda of St. George and St. Vojtěch, Říp
  • Rotunda of St. Martin, Vyšehrad
This list is not complete. There are 29 surviving Romanesque rotundas or their torsos in the Czech Republic. All dating to the times of Great Moravia. There used to be at least 52, proven by archaeology or found in historical records.

Denmark

Medieval churches of Saint-Bonnet-la-Rivière and Neuvy-Saint-Sépulchre, Baroque churches as Chapelle de l'Oratoire, Avignon and Vieille Charité church, Marseille, Abbaye St Croix in Quimperle.

Germany

. Liebfrauenkirche in Trier. St. Ludwig in Darmstadt, Hessen. There is also a round church in Untersuhl, Thuringia.

Hungary

In England, there are four medieval round churches still in use: Holy Sepulchre, Cambridge; Temple Church, London; St John the Baptist Church, Little Maplestead, Essex, and The Holy Sepulchre, Northampton. St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury, is a Georgian round church, and the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral was built in the 20th century. The 18th-century All Saints' Church, Newcastle upon Tyne, is now part of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales.
In Scotland, the medieval Orphir Round Church near Houton on Mainland, Orkney, is in ruins. Kilarrow Parish Church at the top of main street in Bowmore is a round church, built in 1767, on the island of Islay, on Scotland's west coast.

United States of America

The round church of Richmond, Vermont is the only extant example of a round church in the United States.