THE APPEARANCE OF AN INSCRIBED CROSS IN THE SQUARE PLAN OF THE CHURCH OF ST TRYPHON, IN KOTOR, AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 9TH CENTURY

The article considers the appearance of the church of St Tryphon in Kotor as an exceptional element in the early-medieval architecture of Dalmatia at the beginning of the 9th century. The central plan has parallels in the church of St Thomas in nearby Prtanj. The possibility of the origins of this architectural type coming from southern-Italian Apulia is rejected. The architecture of churches of the Bay of Kotor is viewed through the creative development of Byzantine artistic expression. This is concluded, to a certain extent, on the basis of the continuity of architectural solutions in Late Antiquity in the eastern Adriatic. On the other hand, the contemporary impulses generated in Byzantine structures of the 7th-9th centuries are also recognized, but also marked by elaborations of the previous achievements of Late Antiquity.