A round church is a church with a completely circular plan, thus a rotunda in architectural terms.
There are many Nordic round churches in Sweden and Denmark (notably the island of Bornholm); round churches were popular in Scandinavia in the 11th and early 12th centuries.
Round churches should not be confused with the older types of round-tower church constructions. Churches with many-sided polygonal shapes (such as the 16-sided example in Richmond, Vermont, USA) are likewise colloquially referred to as 'round'.
Zvartnots Cathedral in Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin),[1] often cited as the world's largest round church during its existence in the Middle Ages[2] [3] [4]
Church of the Holy Transfiguration in Sarajevo.
See main article: Nordic round churches.
Medieval churches of Saint-Bonnet-la-Rivière and Neuvy-Saint-Sépulchre, Baroque churches as Chapelle de l'Oratoire, Avignon and Vieille Charité church, Marseille.
Aachen Cathedral. Liebfrauenkirche in Trier. St. Ludwig in Darmstadt, Hessen. There is also a round church in Untersuhl, Thuringia.
In England, there are four medieval round churches still in use: Holy Sepulchre, Cambridge; Temple Church, London; St John the Baptist Church, Little Maplestead, Essex, and The Holy Sepulchre, Northampton. St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury, is a Georgian round church, and the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral was built in the 20th century. The 18th-century All Saints' Church, Newcastle upon Tyne, is now part of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales.
In Scotland, the medieval Orphir Round Church near Houton on Mainland, Orkney, is in ruins. Kilarrow Parish Church at the top of main street in Bowmore is a round church, built in 1767, on the island of Islay, on Scotland's west coast.
. Historical Dictionary of Armenia. 2010. Scarecrow Press. Lanham, Maryland. 978-0-8108-7450-3. Rouben Paul Adalian. 82. ...the singular jewel of Armenian architecture, the seventh-century round cathedral of Zvartnots....