Lombard architecture

The term Lombard architecture refers to the architecture of the Kingdom of the Lombards in Italy, which lasted from 568 to 774 (with residual permanence in southern Italy until the 10th-11th centuries) and which was commissioned by Lombard kings and dukes.

The architectural works of the Lombards in northern Italy (Langobardia Major) have been mostly lost due to later renovations or reconstructions, the few exceptions including the Lombard Temple at Cividale del Friuli or the church of Santa Maria fuori Portas at Castelseprio. More examples have instead survived in southern Italy (Langobardia Minor), especially in what was the Duchy of Benevento: they include the city's walls, the church of Santa Sofia and the Rocca dei Rettori, one of the few surviving Lombard military structures, as well as other minor sites near Benevento and in the former duchy of Spoleto.

The main surviving examples of Lombard architecture have been included in the Longobards in Italy, Places of Power (568-774 A.D.) site. This consists of seven places with notable architectural, artistic and sculptural, and it is in the UNESCO Heritage list since 2011.

The most ancient edifices built by the Lombards in Italy, and in particular in their capital, Pavia, have been destroyed or largely renewed in later times. Some trends, which usually ran in different ways from the Roman and Palaeo-Christian architectures predominant in Italy up to late Antiquity, have been identified from archaeological studies or other sources. The destroyed church of Santa Maria in Pertica at Pavia, for example, had a typical Roman plan (octagonal with an ambulatory delimited by columns) but very high central body was a novelty. The Baptistery of San Giovanni ad Fontes, in Lomello, also departed from the typical Palaeo-Christian compactness in the use of a tall central octagon. As it had been in Roman times, the commission of lay and religious buildings was used by the Lombard elite to express their prestige and to legitimate their authority.

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