The 'Framing of Sacred Space' offers the first topical study of canopies as essential spatial and symbolic units in Byzantine-rite churches. Centrally planned columnar structures - typically comprised of four columns and a roof - canopies had a critical role in the modular processes of church design, from actual church furnishings in the shape of a canopy to the church's structural core. As architectonic objects of basic structural and design integrity, canopies integrate an archetypical image of architecture and provide means for an innovative understanding of the materialization of the idea of the Byzantine church and its multi-focal spatial presence. 'The Framing of Sacred Space' considers both the material and conceptual framing of sacred space and explains how the canopy bridges the physical and transcendental realms.