The Sacred Heart Catholic Church in downtown Tampa is a beautiful gothic cathedral that has exquisite architecture and detail. From the small mosaic tiles of the nave to the detailed paintings on the dome pendentive, the church was breath taking. It was evident that there was Roman influence as seen in the Basilica of Maxentius, Anthemius of Tralles, and Basilica of Constantine. By way of example, the Sacred Heart Church had a slight resemblance to the Basilica of Maxentius architecturally. The main entrance opens directly upon the nave. While the original apse is located towards the back, at the end of the nave as the center focus of the church (Sayre, p.210). Like the floorplans pictured there was no narthex within the church there was only a small table with the weekly bulletin and some fliers, but the church’s community activities were advertised outside …show more content…
Although there is no large atrium and narthex as pictured on page 263, the worship space is nearly the same. Upon the entrance of the church, the nave is larger than the neighboring aisles and has ionic and Corinthian columns on either side of the nave (Sayre, p.263). The neighboring aisles also have a row of ionic and Corinthian columns that line the aisle. There were pews and kneelers for worshipers placed in between the columns and next to aisles on either side of the nave. At the end of the nave behind the altar, there was an almost semi-circular apse (Sayre, p.263). The apse was centered and was the focal point of the church. The floorplan pictured in the textbook has a “T” shape, which Sacred Heart also has, where on either side of the end of the nave is a choir and musical section along with additional seating and lit candles. The Sacred Heart Catholic church most accurately resembles the floor plan of Roman Basilica of Constantine (Sayre,