Squinch and dome on a square plan
Trompa angular y cúpula sobre planta cuadrada
- Date
- c. 225 · confidence medium
- Place
- Palace of Ardashir, Firuzabad, Fars, Iran
- Credited to
- Ardashir I (Sasanians)
- People
- 👤 Ardacher I180–242
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Arch or niche at the corners of a square room that turns it into an octagon and allows a circular dome to be supported. It solved one of the great structural problems of vaulted architecture.
There are cruder earlier squinches; the palace of Ardashir is the oldest surviving monumental example. Byzantium chose the pendentive instead.
What it led to
- monumental domes of Persian, Ottoman and Indian mosques
- iwan-and-dome system of Islamic architecture
- muqarnas as a decorative development of the squinch