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A semi-dome, or the whole apse, may also be called a conch after the scallop shell often carved as decoration of the semi-dome (all shells were in Ancient Greek), though this is usually used for subsidiary semi-domes, rather than the one over the main apse.OED, Conch, 5: "The domed roof of a semi-circular apse; also, the apse as a whole". Small semi-domes have been often decorated in a shell shape from ancient times,Hachlili (1998), p. 373, on ancient Jewish examples. as in Piero della Francesca's Throned Madonna with saints and Federigo da Montefeltro,Commons image and the example in the gallery below. Islamic examples may use muqarnas decorative corbelling, while in Late Antique, Byzantine and medieval church architecture the semi-dome is the classic location for a focal mosaic, or later fresco.Talbot Rice, 118 and 123
Found in many Ancient Greek , the semi-dome became a common feature of the apse at the end of Ancient Roman secular , which was adopted in Early Christian architecture as the commonest shape for churches, becoming the focal point for decoration. In buildings like Hagia Sophia in Byzantine architecture, apsidal openings or exhedras from the central nave appear in several directions, not just to the liturgical east.Talbot Rice, 93-98 The tetraconch, triconch and cross-in-square are other typically Eastern Christian church plans that produce several semi-domes.
When the Byzantine styles were adapted in Ottoman architecture, which was even less concerned with maintaining a central axis, a multiplicity of domes and semi-domes becomes the dominating feature of both the internal space and the external appearance of the building. The buildings of Mimar Sinan and his pupil Sedefkar Mehmed Agha are the masterpieces of this style. are another common location for semi-domes.
In Western Europe the external appearance of a semi-dome is less often exploited than in Byzantine and Ottoman architecture, and is often disguised as a sloping rather than curved semi-circular roof.See illustration at Glossary of Medieval Art and Architecture, s.v "semi-dome" (retrieved on 18 April 2009).
Cincinnati Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio features the largest semi-dome in the Western hemisphere, measuring 180 feet wide and 106 feet high. Cincinnati Union Terminal Architectural Information Sheet . Cincinnati Museum Center. Retrieved on February 8, 2010.
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