Lighting Sacred Spaces
December marks the arrival of both the shortest day of the year in the winter solstice and religious festivals that take light as a central motif, such as Hanukkah and Christmas. It is a good time to remember that natural light has been harnessed in sacred spaces to indicate holiness since Antiquity. Moreover, recent research is revealing the elaborate and intentional nature of the observed light effects.
We have long known that Egyptian temples were built according to axial solar alignments that illuminated the statues of the deities on specific days of the year. In the Christian tradition, carefully observed cosmic phenomena have informed the orientation and distinct architectural features of churches throughout the Middle Ages. Recent studies, however, have demonstrated that religious spaces were often meticulously designed relative to the movement of the sun across the sky, and light effects served as a unifying feature, bringing together the architecture, decorations, and ritual performances unfolding within sacred spaces.
Scholars have observed that the general East-West orientation of Christian buildings was established so that the rising sun first illuminates the altar. This draws the connection between natural light as a manifestation of divinity and in particular Christ. But whereas these daily manifestations of the divine (or theophanies) reinforce the associations of natural light and holiness, especially during the celebrations of morning liturgies, additional light phenomena evident throughout the year were deployed with precision to underscore other theological statements.
The sun’s path during the fixed dates of the solstices and equinoxes proved to be particularly relevant. Construction of the Orthodox church of the Holy Cross at Pătrăuți Monastery in Romania was begun in 1487 on the day of the summer solstice (according to the extant dedicatory inscription on the building’s west façade, set above the main entrance). The church’s priest, Father Gabriel-Dinu Herea, has carefully observed and recorded several remarkable light phenomena inside the church over the last fifteen years.
Around the spring and fall equinoxes – March/April and September, respectively – a “light path” is formed along the axis of the church for about two weeks. Each afternoon, between about 5:40 and 6:00, the sunlight aligns directly with the narrow doorways at the thresholds and illuminates the altar. This alignment would have corresponded with the celebrations of Vespers, which centered on Christ’s coming as Light into the darkness of the world.
In recent years, it has become increasingly evident that natural light effects were carefully orchestrated in sacred buildings through the orientation of the edifices, as well as the position, size, and shape of the doors and windows. These phenomena would have been complemented and enhanced through the use of artificial lighting, and in the context of ritual performances, although these ephemeral facets of religious spaces are more difficult to study and recreate. Nevertheless, careful study of the buildings themselves, as well as modern simulations, can recreate the multitude of sensorially-rich phenomena that unfolded in religious buildings. From these, natural light emerges as a unifying factor.
To learn more about the church in Pătrăuți, check out the article "Pătrăuți Monastery: Architecture, murals, and light" (pp. 44-47) in Medieval World 16.