Constantine's basilica at Trier
Yet the answer to this puzzle may be closer at hand.
Excavations conducted after the close of World War II on
the grounds of the Constantinian Basilica at Trier, have
made it clear that the great audience hall in the palace of
Constantine the Great (figs. 240.A and B) had attached to
each of its two long sides an open galleried court.[293]
The
weight of the architectural masses differs distinctly (colossal
hall with comparatively narrow courts at Trier—large
courts with a comparatively narrow center tract of chapels
in the Novitiate and Infirmary complex) but the underlying
principles of composition are identical.
