An onion dome (Russian: луковичная глава, lúkovichnaya glava) is a dome whose shape resembles an onion, after which they are named. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the drum upon which they are set, and their height usually exceeds their width. These bulbous structures taper smoothly to a point.
It is the predominant form for church domes in Russia (Russian: луковичная глава, lúkovichnaya glava; mostly on Russian Orthodox churches) and Bavaria, Germany (German: Zwiebelturm (= "onion tower"), plural: Zwiebeltürme, mostly on Catholic churches), but can also be found regularly across Austria, Eastern Europe, Mughal India, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Other types of Orthodox cupolas are helmet domes (for example, those of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod and Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir), Ukrainian pear domes (Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev), and Baroque bud domes (St. Andrew's Church in Kiev).
Read more about Onion Dome: History, Traditional View, Modern View, Symbolism, Outside Russia
Famous quotes containing the words onion and/or dome:
“Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,
And, scarce suspected, animate the whole.”
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845)
“Thus to him, to this schoolboy under the bending dome of day, is suggested that he and it proceed from one root; one is leaf and one is flower; relation, sympathy, stirring in every vein. And what is that root? Is not that the soul of his soul?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)