St. Georges Church:

Architectural Analysis

            St. Georges Round Church, named after one of the famous Christian martyrs, stands at the corner of Brunswick and Cornwallis Streets. Elevated on the hill, overlooking the harbour, it harmoniously includes the existing landscape conditions into the building plan. The stairs connect the street level with the floor of the main entrance and the next set of stairs connect this level with the main floor of the church. Originally built in a Palladian style it has undergone alterations and reconstructions, so today’s plan of the church could be devided into five parts. The original two hundred year old rotunda is still the central part of St George’s Church. The main aisle, or the nave, cuts it from east to west into two symmetrical halves, giving the building the main axis. The east end of the nave leads through the set of doors to the main entrance. The west end is approaching the chancel, the third identifiable part of the church. The last two additions, the orgelroom with back entrance and clergy room are attached to the rotunda and north and south walls of the altar. The rotunda, as the the originally central planned church dictates the proportions for the later attached parts.

     The floor plan of the entrance is an almost perfect square, distorted only at the corners where it is attached to the circular outer wall of the Round church. The length and width of the basic square of the entrance equals the length of the radius of the rotunda. The floor plan of the chancel measures three quarters of the rotunda’s radius in width and approximately the equal size of the radius in length. The east end is connected to the church’s main rotunda and opens to its interior, the west ends wall has a semicircular shape or the apse, forming St. Georges smaller second rotunda.  Two symmetrical buildings on both sides of the altar have the same width, equal to the half width of the chancel, their length follows north and south walls of altar, ending before the west wall begins to form the smaller rotunda. There is a small porch at the entrance to the clergy room. Together, the chancel and two additional buildings at the west side of the church, intentionally planned or not, have a shape of a triptych or a three parts winged altar, their combined width equals three quarters of the rotunda’s diameter. The length of the entrance and the altar equals the radius length of the rotunda. The length of the entire chirch equals double length of rotunda.  Overall, the lengths and widths of the five parts of the Round church point out that throughout the different stages of construction, the proportions of all new parts were based on the size of the original rotunda.  

            The facade and exterior walls of the building are covered in bluish-grey siding, the wooden pilasters imitating supporting columns, and the window frames are painted white. The plain design of the church’s pilasters with unfluted shaft, simple capital and base, are very chracteristic of the Tuscan order, the simplified adaptation of the Doric order by the Romans.

     The main rotunda has three  classical stories: lover, upper and dome. The lower level has four windows on each side, the upper level has five windows on the south side and four on the north. The roof of the rotunda supports the saucer dome,  its diameter is approximately half of the diameter of the rotunda. The dome is crowned by a cupola.  The heights of the later added parts were adjacent to the rotundas. The chancel has two stories with four windows on the upper level. The lower level of the main entrance is connected to the lower level of the rotunda by stairs, the upper part of this structure with an arched window is on the same level as rotunda’s upper story. The clergy room with two windows is only one story high, while the orgel room on the other side of the chancel is two stories high, has a small back entrance and no windows.

            The facade of classical dimensions, length equalling double height, superimposes different elements. As a whole, it reminds of the temple front with missing pediment. The entablature has three main classical elements: the architrave, the plain frieze and cornice with dentils, typical for Ionic and Corinthian orders. The length of the entablature rests on four Tuscan  pilasters: two corner pilasters and two just a short distance beside them. In the middle, between the tall pilasters are three dark painted doors, set in the frames of triumphal arches with lower Tuscan pilasters on each side and windows in the arched central sections. The roof of the main entrance supports the almost cubical plain structure with an arched window and a set of dentils below the cornice of the roof. Inside the structure is the staircase.

            The main doors lead into the small enclosed porch. From there, the set of five dark wooden doors leads into the vestibule with a staircase to the main rotunda of the church. The five doors support the beam of the same wood and an arched window above each door.  Beyond them, the wide dark wooden stairs with railings, supported by carved balusters, lead to the next floor on the same level with the main floor of the rotunda. Three double doors and two Tuscan order pilasters on which rests the interior entablatur with architrave, frieze, cornice and even dentils, mark the entrance into the oldest part of the St. Georges. The rich dark colour of the wood, contrasting with the whiteness of the walls and the burgundy carpet are the only noted decorations in this part of the church structure.

            The rotunda, originally enclosing the entire church, today provides the space for the congregation. The nave cuts the pews in the middle and the entire room into two equal halves. Two side aisles follow the circular path dividing the central pews from those, which lines the sides of the rotunda. The eight rectangular windows of the lower level consists of twenty four lights separated by mullions. Each big window is framed by moldings similar to the Tuscan pilasters with additional square base. Between the windows, adorning the walls, are more plain Tuscan order pilasters and the memorial plates of different classical designs.  Six Tuscan columns, arranged in a semi-circle on each side of the nave and positioned between the central pews, support the entablature of the second story gallery with the railing and carved ballusters. The gallery, following the shape of the rotunda, is interrupted only on the west end of the church axel where the rotunda is connected to the chancel. The rows of the gallery’s pews line up the walls in the same fashion as on the lower level. The windows too have twenty four lights, forming the rectanqular shape, but with an added round-headed arch of six lights on top. The same style plane pilasters are placed between the windows. The gallery is high enough for the additional semi-circular balcony on the east side, facing the chancel. The gallery’s entablature, supported by columns of the lower level, provides the platform for the next order in the same number. The upper level Tuscan columns, rest on the cubical bases between railing segments, and are connected to each other’s capitals by arches, forming the support for the entablature of the structure of the dome.  

       The dome, crowning the church, consists of two shells. The inside shell is built of twelve blue colored segments, connected by golden ribs. The outside shell sits on the circular base with a row of windows. The outside walls of the base are covered with the same grey-bluish siding, as the whole church and the row of the dentils is the only decoration of this part. In between two shells, there is an attic and a stair case, leading into cupola with an outside belvedair and a weathervane in form of Halley’s Comet.  Cupola shelters the church’s bell.  The chancel, two stories high has no windows at the lower level, but a clerestory row of four windows at the upper level. The arched windows are decorated with half arched moldings on the top. The aisle between choir pews leads to the four steps of the high altar. Triptych, or a three part winged altar, is fixed against the circular west wall. The right and left wings are formed by two pairs of Tuscan order columns, supporting the entablature structure with corniche and prominent dentils. An arch, connecting those two wings, defines the middle part. The altar table is decorated with candles, flowers and a golden cross. Big orgel is built into the room on the north side of the chancel. Of all the parts in the church, the chancel is the most decorated space. Wrapped around its lower level is the wallpaper, resembling in design those of the Arts and Crafts Movement. On the pale pink background there are rows of medallions in sage green, burgundy and blue colours, with symbols of fleur-de-lis, crowns and exotic flowers. A band in golden colour with inscriptions trims the upper edge of the wallpaper; the dark wooden panels cover the bottom part.  The prominent spot in the arched middle part of the winged altar is painted the same blue as the dome and fixtures, the symbol of the crown with the radiating rays of light and word Jesus in a golden color. The passage between the chancel and the rotunda  and two ends of the interrupted almost circular gallery is marked by decorative intersecting vaults. The clergy room is closed to the public, the other small room is a plane back entrance.

     There is probably no definite answer to the question of whether Leon Battista Alberti would enjoy this church or not. We can only take his ideas and analyze them one by one. He would probably approve of the elevated position of the building, which sets it apart from the surrounded structures. There is no beautiful square, but we have to keep in mind that at the time that the church was originally built, the houses around it were in lesser numbers and represented a more harmonious architectural ensemble. The facade has some classical temple front fixtures, but Alberti would probably find the absence of the pediment troublesome. The dome, built in saucer design, suggests cosmic existence. The colour scheme of the outside as well as the inside is cool and harmonious. All ornaments are classical, there are no sculptures, but the memorial plates have distinct classical futures. There are no paintings, or frescos, but decorative wallpaper decorates the chancel, as well as inscriptions to stimulate the mind.

      There are a number of characteristics which go against Alberti’s theory. The missing pediment and the not very prominent pilasters, or even lack of the columns, take the front away from a classical temple image. The church has more windows than Alberti had ever imagined and the decoration, without any precious materials, is more sparce as in his own work. The fence around the prorperty and the surrounding modern buildings worsen the outside picture. The original plan of the church in neoclassical style, and the second plan, would have been preferred over the final construction, but the orgel addition was no small matter and the problem would not have been resolved without the last additions. Overall, Alberti would likely not have disapproved of the current state of the church, but nonetheless, may have made propositions of how to beautify it.