The aim of the course is to gain an understanding of frescoes and mosaics as a means of constitution and representation of space in Byzantine churches. Projecting an ideal space, immaterial, infinite and timeless, the Byzantine temple shaped the lives of people in historical space and time for almost a millennium and a half, even beyond the borders of the Byzantine Empire. Through the analysis of selected important monuments, it explores in particular how iconic decoration is structured in various types of temples, contributing to the organization of spatial relations, how it transforms these spatial relations into classifications and hierarchies of worlds, living beings, moral categories and social roles; how it activates the temple as a dynamic, liminal space of interactive experience at the boundaries of the sensible and the imaginary; and, finally, how it defines fields of ideological debate, culminating most dramatically in the long-lasting crisis of iconoclasm. Student participation in the course includes the elaboration of a topic related to a specific monument, its oral presentation and the submission of a written assignment.