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:
“Three meals of thin gruel a day, with an onion twice a week, and half a roll on Saturdays.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“The sun, the hero of every day, the impersonal old man that beams as brightly on death as on birth, came up every morning and raced across the blue dome and dipped into the sea of fire every evening. Water ran down hill and birds nested.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)