One thing that influenced the interiors of churches during this time was the idea of the 'mysticism of light.' They believed that light came from the good and that light was the visual image of God. Because of this belief, the churches during this time tended to be very well lit, with lots of windows. One way they would achieve this was by adding pendentives which are set domes on top of an arch and in the dome, they would add windows. This was first shown on the church Hagia Sophia.
One event that affected this era was Iconoclasm which means 'image breaking.' Basically, they found this quote in the bible, 'thous shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them' (Exodus 4-5) and decided that because of this, no one should own or display any image of any divine being (Jesus, Mary, or any saint). This was a major event because icons were import to the people of this time and because of this, the cities were purged of all divine images and a lot or artwork of this era was destroyed.
Most of what did survive was hidden in the the monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai, Egypt. Artwork was more likely to survive Iconoclasm here because it's located on a mountain and therefore difficult to get to. One of the paintings that survived in this monastery was 'Christ the Savior' or 'Christ Pantocrator'. When constructing the face of Christ, artists during this time would purposefully corrupt the face as an act of humility showing that they are human and therefore do not have the ability to create the perfection of Christ's face. 
EC: Information on Hagia Sophia : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRPp3jzv1Tw
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