Bk. V. Ch. I. ROUND CHURCHES. Ill Another peculiarity seems to be that the Gothland churches are all small buildings, like the Greek cluirches. There does not appear to have been any metropolitan basilica, or any great conventual establish- ment, but an immense number of detached cells and chapels scattered in o-roups all over the island, with very few that could contain a con- gregation of any extent. Till, however, they are investigated with care, and drawn, it is impossible to say whether this arose from any affinity to the Greek Church, or from some local peculiarity which we do not now understand. Round Churches. To the archaeologist the Round Churches form the most interesting group in the Scandinavian province, though to the architect they can 654. Round Church, Thorsager. (From Marryat's " Jutland and the Danish Isles.") hardly be deemed of much importance. They are, however, so remark- able that many theories have been formed to account for their pecu- liarities. The most general opinion seems to be that the circular form was adopted for defensive purpose. The position of their apses, however, their large windows near the ground, and the unprotected position of their doors as originally constructed, all militate against this idea ; besides that a square form was as easily defensible, in the age when they were erected, as a circular one. A more probable suggestion is that the people when first converted to Christianity clung to the circular form, as the sacred one which they had been accustomed to reverence in the tombs of their ancestors.
