- aisled: Furnished with aisles…
- aisles: The lateral spaces parallel to the nave in a church or basilica. Very large churches may have double aisles, as at Cologne Cathedral.
- apse aisle: An aisle or ambulatory extending around an apse or chevet.
- back-aisle: Portion of a church forming an appendage to the main building, e.g., a chantry-chapel projecting from a chancel-aisle.
- chancel aisle: The side aisle of a chancel in a large church; it usually passes around the apse, forming a deambulatory.
- choir aisle: An aisle parallel to and adjoining the choir.
- cross aisle: In a church, a transverse aisle between pews. 2. In an auditorium, an aisle usually parallel to rows of seats, connecting other aisles or an aisle and an exit.
- deambulatory: An aisle extending around the apse of a church; an apse aisle. 2. The ambulatory of a cloister, or the like.
- north aisle: The aisle of a church on the left side of a church as one faces the altar; so called because medieval churches almost invariably had their sanctuaries at the east end and the main doors at the west end.
- passage aisle: An aisle made so narrow as to serve only as a passageway, as from one end to another of a church…
- procession path: A continuation of the choir aisles behind the high altar in an apsidal (and sometimes in a square-ended) church.
- side aisle: Aisle(s) to the side of the nave (central aisle).
- south aisle: The aisle of a church on the right side as one faces the altar; so called because medieval churches almost invariably had their sanctuaries at the east end and the main doors at the west end.
- transept aisle: An aisle on the side of a transept.
- altar board: In a Coptic church, a wooden panel ornamented with the cross and other symbols, and set into a depression in the top of the altar. The chalice and paten are placed upon it during the mass.
- altar cavity: A small chamber or recess in the body of an altar or immediately below it; used in some forms of Christian worship for the deposit, either permanently or at certain times, of objects connected with liturgical service.
- altar desk: A small desk set upon the altar to support the service book.
- altar facing: Also see altar frontal.
- altar front: Also see altar frontal.
- altar frontal: A hanging or panel used to form a movable front for an altar. The altars in some churches are of such splendor that frontals are rarely used, but in other cases a frontal is always in use, and there are sometimes many different frontals, which are changed according to the day. Silk of different colors strained on a frame and often richly embroidered is sometimes used; the colors varying, as white for the feast of a virgin saint, black on a fast day, and the like.
- altar herse: Also see hearse.
- altar ledge: A step at the back of an altar forming a ledge or shelf slightly higher than the altar, to receive lights, flowers, or ornaments.
- altar of repose: In a Roman Catholic church, a side altar, repository, or storage niche where the Host is kept from Maundy Thursday to Good Friday.
- altar rail: A railing across the chancel, or in front of the altar.
- altar side: The part of the altar which faces the congregation. It is usually concealed or decorated by the altar frontal.
- altar slab: A flat stone or slab forming the top of an altar.
- altar step: One of the steps which lead up from the floor of the choir or sanctuary to the platform upon which the altar stands. It is usually considered that there should be three of these steps, but in large churches they are frequently more numerous. These steps are not to be confounded with the flight leading up to the sanctuary itself in cases where it is higher than the neighboring floors of the church.
- altar stone: A flat stone or slab forming the top of an altar.
- altar table: A table used in place of or as representing an altar; especially a movable table substituted for reasons of doctrine or practice for the fixed and usually stone-built altar.
- altar tomb: A raised tomb, or monument covering a tomb, whose shape resembles an altar.
- altarpiece: A panel, painted or sculptured, situated above and behind an altar.
- altarstead: The place and arrangement of an altar; an old English term not now in use.
- ancona: A formally set picture or group of pictures, as for an altarpiece. 2. A framed and architecturally important recess for a piece of sculpture.
- by-altar: A subordinate altar.
- ciborio: In modern Italian churches, a closed receptacle for the safe keeping of the consecrated wafer, differing from the monstrance in that it is closed solidly…
- columba: In the medieval church, a dove-shaped receptacle for the sacrament.
- Communion-table: Wooden table in Protestant churches, replacing the stone altar, introduced as a deliberate denial of the doctrine of Transubstantiation.
- credence: A small table near the altar of a church to hold the bread and wine.
- credenza: A small table near the altar of a church to hold the bread and wine.
- English altar: Type of late-medieval altar arrangement with riddells, riddell-posts, and, sometimes, a tester.
- frontal: The textile or panels which form the decorative front of an altar. 2. Same as fronton.
- high altar: The primary altar in a church.
- high-altar: Main altar of a church sited on the main axis at the east of the choir or chancel.
- lardose: A screen behind an altar, at the back of a seat, etc.
- monstrance: In ecclesiology, a receptacle of any kind in which the Host is displayed, as distinguished from a vessel in which wafers are kept for security. In modern practice, the term is used exclusively for small and portable vessels of the sort.
- pala: An altarpiece.
- pontifical altar: An isolated altar, such as under the dome of St. Peter’s at Rome, covered by a baldachin; usually placed in the great Roman basilicas.
- prestol: In the Russian Orthodox church, an altar or sanctuary table.
- ridell: In a church, the curtains suspended around an altar, sometimes from rods fixed into the wall behind, but more often from some means of hanging spanning between riddel-posts: there were normally four of the last, polygonal on plan, colored and gilded, and crowned by angels, often supporting candelabra…
- rood altar: An altar standing against the nave side of a rood screen.
- almariol: Also see ambry.
- almariolum: A cupboard or niche in a chancel wall for the utensils of the Eucharist; an armarium. 2. A storage place, storeroom, closet, or pantry. Also see ambry.
- almary: Also see ambry.
- almorie: Also see almariol.
- ambre: A cupboard or niche in a chancel wall for the utensils of the Eucharist; an armarium. 2. A storage place, storeroom, closet, or pantry. Also see ambry.
- armariolum: Also see ambry.
- armarium: Same as ambry. 2. Originally a place for keeping arms; later a cupboard, in which were kept, not only arms, but also clothes, books, money, ornaments, and other articles of value. 3. A division in an ancient Roman library.
- armoire: A cupboard or cabinet. 2. An ambry.
- repositorium: A place for the disposition or storage of anything; especially, in a Roman temple, a place of votive offerings and treasure; in a church, an ambry.
- sacrament house: An ambry; used especially for the keeping of the sacred wafer.
- aspersorium: Latin term for a stoup or holy water basin.
- benatura: The vessel for holy water placed inside the entrances to some churches.
- benitier: A basin for holy water, usually set at the entrance to a church.
- cantharus: In Roman antiquity, a two-handled cup; hence that part of a fountain which holds the water, or the upper basin only. 2. A basin or fountain of ablutions in the atrium of a mediaeval or early Christina basilica.
- colymbion: A basin for holy water in the Greek church.
- fons: A natural spring. 2. An artificial fountain, made either by covering and decorating a spring with a structure or sculpture, or by making a jet of water, supplied from an elevated cistern, play into an artificial basin.
- font: A basin for the water of baptism, or for holy water.
- holy water basin: In French, a holy water basin, usually set at the entrance to a church. The benitier may be supported on a shaft or pedestal or corbelled out from the wall. Also see beniter, pila, and stoup.
- holy water stone: Stone basin containing water, sometimes on a pillar, near the entrance to a church.
- holy-water stock: See stoup.
- holy-water stone: Stone basin containing water, sometimes on a pillar, near the entrance to a church.
- immissarium: A basin, trough, or other contrivance built on the ground, of stone or brick, to contain a body of water flowing from a reservoir (castellum) of an aqueduct, to accommodate the adjacent neighborhood.
- lavabo: In monasteries of the Middle Ages, a large stone basin from which the water flowed through a number of small orifices around the edge, for the convenient performances of abluations before religious exercises or meals.
- lavatorium: A built-in washbasin; by extension, a washroom.
- pièce d’eau: Ornamental basin (usually of stone) or pond, especially the large formal pond at Versailles (1679-82).
- pila: In churches in Italy, a holy-water font, consisting of a bowl mounted on a shaft, as distinguished from a font hanging from or secured to a wall or pier. 2. A square block or epistyle, just over the columns, to support a rooftimber. 3. A mortar which is valuable or curious on account of its antiquity or design.
- pilla: In Italy, a free-standing holy water font. 2. A masonry support for roof timbers that is superimposed on a column.
- pillar-piscina: Free-standing piscina set on a short colonnette.
- stoup: Synonym for piscina. 2. A basin for holy water near the church entrance.
- belfry chamber: Also see belfry.
- belfry gable: Also see belfry tower.
- belfry turret: A turret leading to a belfry, as by means of a winding stair within the turret, and having often a separate door opening from the churchyard or the like.
- bell cage: The timber framework which supports the bells in a belfry or steeple.
- bell canopy: A gable roof to shelter a bell.
- bell carriage: The structure which carries a bell, or bells, in a belfry; either the whole bell cage, or the stock and wheel taken together, or the stock alone. The term does not seem to be used with technical accuracy.
- bell chamber: A room containing one or more large bells hung on their bell cage.
- bell cot: A small belfry astride the ridge of a church roof, often crowned with a small spire.
- bell cote: A small belfry astride the ridge of a church roof, often crowned with a small spire.
- bell deck: The belfry floor above the lower rooms in a tower.
- bell hanging: The trade or operation of putting in place in a building the bells and their appurtenances. Originally, this work was confined to such bells as were sounded by wires connected with levers or handles pulled by the operator, and other simple mechanical devices, and the trade of placing or hanging the apparatus was one requiring considerable skill and experience, owing to the necessity of nice and accurate adjustment of the long, strained wires which transmitted the power, changing direction where necessary by means of levers and bell cranks. In modern times, the trade also includes the placing of electric bells, which are, in fact, rapidly taking the place of the old appliances.
- bell house: A tower-like building for housing bells, especially in Ireland.
- bell pull: A knob, or handle, and its appurtenances, connected with a bell by any mechanical contrivance, and by which the bell is rung by pulling.
- bell turret: A small tower, usually topped with a spire or pinnacle, and containing one or more bells.
- bellcote: A small gable holding bells.
- bell-cote: The top room of a tower in which bells are hung. Or, alternatively, the bell tower itself.
- bell-gable: The top room of a tower in which bells are hung. Or, alternatively, the bell tower itself.
- campanile: A bell tower usually attached to or near a church; also, lofty towers that form parts of buildings.
- headstock: A supporting beam for a church bell.
- mass bell: Also see sanctus bell.
- sackering bell: Same as sanctus bell.
- sacring bell: Also see sacring bell, sanctus bell.
- sacringe: Also see sacring bell, sanctus bell.
- saint’s bell: Also see sanctus bell.
- sancta bell: In a church, the bell announcing the beginning of the Sanctus or the approaching elevation of the Host.
- sancte bell: Also see sanctus bell.
- sanctus bell: A bell hung in an exterior turret or a bell cot over or near the chancel arch, which was rung to fix the attention of those not in the church to the service of the mass.
- Sanctus bell-cote: See bell-cote.
- brasses: Common term for sepulchral portrait monuments made in brass usually found on the floor of churches.
- memorial brass: A plate of yellow metal engraved with an effigy or more than one, and with names, dates, texts from scripture, prayers, or the like, set as the decorative and significant part of a tomb, sometimes vertically, as in a wall, sometimes as part of a pavement. The engraved characters are usually filled with black or red pigment…
- baldacchino: Permanent canopy, especially over an altar, throne, or tomb, usually supported on columns. Also see baldachin.
- baldachin: A richly ornamented canopy structure supported by columns, suspended from a roof, or projected from a wall; usually over an altar.
- baldachino: An ornamental canopy over an altar, usually supported by columns, or a similar form over a tomb or throne.
- baldaquin: A richly ornamented canopy structure supported by columns, suspended from a roof, or projected from a wall; usually over an altar.
- canopy of honor: A decorative ceiling, especially over the chancel, in medieval church architecture or derivatives. 2. A paneled canopy above an altar or crucifix. Same as celure.
- catafalco: A draped and canopied stage or scaffold, usually erected in a church, on which is placed the coffin or effigy of a deceased person.
- catafalque: A draped and canopied stage or scaffold, usually erected in a church, on which is placed the coffin or effigy of a deceased person.
- ceele: Old English for canopy.
- cellure: A canopy or its decoration.
- celure: A canopy or its decoration.
- ciborium: A baldachin or altar canopy. 2. A repository near the altar for the pyx.
- cibory: A baldachin or altar canopy. 2. A repository near the altar for the pyx.
- ciel: The tester of a bed; especially the underside of such a tester considered as a surface for decoration. From the French word meaning heaven or sky; hence a canopy, etc.
- ciele: Old English for canopy.
- civery: Also see ciborium.
- civory: Also see ciborium.
- cooperculum: The cover of a baldachin or ciborium.
- dorse: Canopy or dorsel.
- locus columbae: Also see peristerium.
- nodding ogee: Ogee canopy-head. Its apex projects beyond the springing-line of the canopy, i.e. it is an ogee form in section as well as in elevation.
- peristerium: The inner or second ciborium.
- seel: Old English for canopy.
- siel: Old English for canopy.
- sounding board: A canopy over a pulpit to direct the sound of a speaker’s voice toward the audience; see abat-voix. 2. A structure over or behind and above a speaker or orchestra to reflect the sound toward the audience.
- tabernacle work: A highly decorated arcade or screen with canopies and sculpture.
- tegimen: Also see baldachin.
- tester: A canopy, as over a bed or a tomb.
- town canopy: See canopy.
- umbraculum: Also see baldachin.
- cathedral: The mother church of a diocese, containing the bishop’s throne.
- cathedral church: The church in which is set up the bishop’s throne or cathedra…
- dom: In German, a cathedral church. 2. In German, same as dome.
- double cathedral: An Early Christian cathedral having two basilicas, usually on parallel axes.
- duomo: The term for an Italian cathedral.
- procathedral: A church used as the cathedral church of a diocese while the proper church remains unfinished or under repair.
- pro-cathedral: A church used as the cathedral church of a diocese while the proper church remains unfinished or under repair.
- antechapel: That part of a chapel lying between the west wall and the choir screen; it would form the transept if a nave were added to the west.
- antiparabema: One of two chapels at the entrance end of a Byzantine church.
- apse chapel: A chapel opening from an apse; such a radial chapel is a conspicuous feature of French Gothic architecture.
- apsidole: A small apsidal chapel, especially one projecting from an apse.
- capella: In Italian, a chapel.
- capilla mayor: The principal chapel in Spanish churches.
- cappella del coro: The choir, or chapel of the choir.
- chantry chapel: The chapel or separate part of a church appropriated for the purpose of the daily or frequent saying of mass in behalf of the founder or some other person or persons. Commonly built or adorned by the founder. It is often a bay, or two or more bays, of an aisle, enclosed by a screen.
- chapel royal: The chapel of a royal castle or palace.
- chasovnya: In early Russian architecture, a chapel which is a detached structure.
- chauntry: A chapel within a church, endowed for religious services for the soul of the donor or others he may designate. Also see chantry.
- cubiculum: In ancient Roman architecture, a bedchamber. 2. A mortuary chapel attached to a church. 3. A burial chamber having, on its walls, compartments for the reception of the dead. 4. Same as suggestus.
- double chapel: A chapel constructed in two stories, affording two places of worship one above the other.
- Episcopal chapel: In the British Isles, a chapel connected with the established church… 2. A chapel of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S…
- expiatory chapel: A chapel erected to expiate a murder or other great crime.
- haikal: The central chapel of the three forming the sanctuary of a Coptic church.
- Lady Chapel: One dedicated to the worship of the Virgin Mary.
- Lady-Chapel: Chapel in a larger church, expressly for venerating the Virgin Mary, often situated to the east of the chancel or choir, as in Westminster Abbey…
- mortuary chapel: A chapel for the temporary reception of and services for funeral parties.
- oratory: A small or private chapel.
- parakklesion: A chapel in a Byzantine church.
- prothesis: A chapel as part of a building of the Greek Church.
- radiating chapel: Chapel radiating from the apse or ambulatory of a church.
- radiating chapels: Chapels projecting radially from the curve of an ambulatory or rarely of an apse.
- sacrament chapel: A chapel especially reserved for the preservation of the host.
- saint chapelle: In French, a holy chapel, that is, one of especially sacred character; a term used peculiarly for those which contain some relic of great sanctity, as any one of those which relate especially to the Passion of Christ…
- sainte chapelle: In French, a holy chapel, that is, one of especially sacred character; a term used peculiarly for those which contain some relic of great sanctity, as any one of those which relate especially to the Passion of Christ…
- shrine chapel: A small enclosed structure containing the tomb of a sainted person.
- side chapel: A chapel to the side of the choir.
- transept chapel: A chapel entered from a transept, usually on its east side.
- antechoir: A space more or less enclosed in front of a choir, especially the space between the inner and outer grates of a choir screen.
- back choir: Also see retrochoir.
- benedictine choir: Choir flanked by rectangular areas of decreasing size.
- cantoria: A church choir gallery.
- choir: The space reserved for the clergy in the church, usually east of the transept but, in some instances, extending into the nave.
- choir enclosure: Same as choir screen.
- choir screen: A screen wall, railing, or partition of any type dividing the choir from the nave, aisles, and crossing.
- choir wall: A wall between piers and under an arcade screening the choir from the aisles.
- choir-screen: A screen wall, railing, or partition of any type dividing the choir from the nave, aisles, and crossing.
- fore choir: Also see antechoir.
- schola cantorum: Area of the presbytery reserved for the singers, separated by a screen.
- triconch choir: Choir structure with three semicircular areas of the same size forming a trefoil.
- almariolum: A cupboard or niche in a chancel wall for the utensils of the Eucharist; an armarium. 2. A storage place, storeroom, closet, or pantry. Also see ambry.
- almerie: Recess in a church wall in which sacred vessels are kept, usually near an altar. 2. Store for food, cooking-utensils, etc.: food-cupboard or larder. 3. Recessed cupboard in a wall. 4. As almonry.
- almory: Recess in a church wall in which sacred vessels are kept, usually near an altar. 2. Store for food, cooking-utensils, etc.: food-cupboard or larder. 3. Recessed cupboard in a wall. 4. As almonry.
- ambre: A cupboard or niche in a chancel wall for the utensils of the Eucharist; an armarium. 2. A storage place, storeroom, closet, or pantry. Also see ambry.
- amry: Recess in a church wall in which sacred vessels are kept, usually near an altar. 2. Store for food, cooking-utensils, etc.: food-cupboard or larder. 3. Recessed cupboard in a wall. 4. As almonry.
- aumerie: Recess in a church wall in which sacred vessels are kept, usually near an altar. 2. Store for food, cooking-utensils, etc.: food-cupboard or larder. 3. Recessed cupboard in a wall. 4. As almonry.
- aumery: Recess in a church wall in which sacred vessels are kept, usually near an altar. 2. Store for food, cooking-utensils, etc.: food-cupboard or larder. 3. Recessed cupboard in a wall. 4. As almonry.
- aumrie: Recess in a church wall in which sacred vessels are kept, usually near an altar. 2. Store for food, cooking-utensils, etc.: food-cupboard or larder. 3. Recessed cupboard in a wall. 4. As almonry.
- alure: A passage or gallery, as on the top of a wall.
- excubitorium: A gallery in a church where public watch was formerly kept at night on the eve of a festival. 2. In a medieval monastery, an apartment for night watchers whose duty it was to call monks to their nocturnal devotions.
- Norman gallery: Gallery running in front of the windows, typical of Anglo-Norman architecture.
- organ loft: In a church, the gallery or loft where the organ is located, usually high above the floor.
- picture gallery: A hall planned and provided with regard to wall spaces, area of floor, and lighting by day or night, for the most convenient exposition of pictures.
- pourtour: In French, a circuit; a gallery or passage allowing of movement around a central hall or the like; especially, in churches, the aisle which nearly surrounds the apse or chevet, passing along the north and south sides and curving around the east end.
- singing-gallery: Elevated choir-loft, tribune-gallery, or cantoria for singers in a church. 2. Roof-loft.
- traverse: A gallery or loft of communication in a church or other building. 2. A sequence of intersecting surveyed lines whose lengths and angles of intersection are recorded graphically on a map and as data in a table.
- triforium: A gallery or range of arches above the longitudinal arches bounding nave or choir in a church.
- triforium-gallery: In larger Romanesque and Gothic churches, an upper aisle with its own arcade forming an important part of the elevation of a nave interior above the nave-arcade and below the clerestory…
- upper croft: A triforium gallery.
- uppercroft: A triforium gallery.
- watching-chamber: Elevated gallery in a church from which the monks could watch over a holy shrine, e.g. the beautiful surviving timber example in St. Alban’s Cathedral (early 15th c.). 2. Place from which monks could be summoned to the services, appropriately called excubitorium.
- whispering: Certain passages or galleries are referred to as ‘whispering’ on account of the facility and distinctness with which a whisper/low sound is transmitted through its extent, e.g. the circular internal gallery under the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London.
- eaves channel: A channel or small gutter along the top of a wall; conveys the roof drippings to spouts or gargoyles.
- gargoyle: Originating in Gothic architecture, this is a water spout for roof run-off. Gargoyles are carved human, animal, or demon figures who offer the roof run-off through their open mouths.
- grotesque: Whimsical distortions of human and animal forms, either sculpted or painted (e.g. chimeras, griffins, goblins, basilisks, gargoyles, makharas, etc.)
- grotesques: Whimsical distortions of human and animal forms, either sculpted or painted (e.g. chimeras, griffins, goblins, basilisks, gargoyles, makharas, etc.)
- gurgoyle: Same as gargoyle.
- persona: A mask of terra-cotta, marble, etc. designed to imitate the human face or the head of an animal, usually in grotesque form, employed as an antefix in buildings, as an ornament for discharging water, or as a gargoyle.
- coretti: Galleries resembling theatre-boxes in the choirs of Baroque churches.
- labyrinth: A maze of twisting passageways. 2. In medieval cathedrals, the representation of such a maze inlaid in the floor. 3. A garden feature of convoluted paths outlined by hedges, often with a garden house at the center.
- minstrel gallery: A small balcony on the inside of a church or manor house hall, usually over the entrance.
- organ gallery: In many churches, where the organ is placed high above the floor, an upper floor with a parapet, or screen, fronting toward the church, and arranged to receive the organ. It is often extended so as to afford place for the singers as well.
- slype: A narrow passage as between two buildings; a slip. 2. In some English cathedrals, a passage leading from the transept to the chapter house or to the rectory.
- agiasterium: The sanctuary in a basilica.
- alternating system: Where circular alternate with compound Romanesque piers, as in Durham Cathedral, this is termed an alternating system.
- ambulatory: A covered walkway, outdoors (as in a cloister) or indoors; especially the passageway around the apse and the choir (quire) of a church.
- anchoridge: The room over the vestry attached to the north side of the chancel; a common appendage to churches in northern England.
- andron: The part of a house, church, or monastery set apart for the use of men.
- andronitis: The part of a house, church, or monastery set apart for the use of men.
- antechurch: A deep narthex at the front of a church, usually with a nave and side aisles.
- antenave: A narthex or porch west of the nave.
- apsid: Also see apse.
- apsidal: Containing or resembling an apse.
- apsidiole: A minor or secondary apse.
- apsis: Same as apse. This form of the word follows the Latin original, but it has been mainly appropriated to astronomical nomenclature.
- arcus presbyterii: In medieval architecture, the arch marking the upper boundary of the tribune.
- Argei: Certain sites in the ancient city of Rome (probably between 24 and 27 in number) with small chapels attached to them, consecrated by Numa for the performance of religious rites.
- assidua: That part of a church in which the altar is placed.
- auditory: In ancient churches, that part of the church where the people usually stood to be instructed in the gospel; now called the nave.
- auleolum: A small church or chapel.
- beffroi: In French, a framework for supporting a heavy bell. 2. In France and neighboring countries, a communal or civil bell tower as distinguished from the clocher or steeple of a church. The beffrois, which first appear at the close of the twelfth century in France, are in some cases isolated, in others attached to the town hall. Those of the manufacturing towns of Belgium are particularly interesting. The name is applied also to a movable tower of wood used in sieges.
- bema: The sanctuary or chancel of Eastern or Oriental churches. 2. The platform in a synagogue from which services are conducted.
- bematis: Originally a place where the deacons kept the vessels used for the church service.
- Bernadine plan: Cruciform basilican plan with a nave and two aisles, projecting transept, choir, and flat-ended side chapels.
- body: The principal volume of a building such as the nave of a church. 2. The structural portion of a ceramic article or the clay material or mixture from which it is made.
- catacumba: The atrium or courtyard of a basilican church.
- catholicon: The central nave of a church. 2. The church of a monastery. See katholikon.
- cellula: In ancient Rome, a small sanctuary in the interior of a small temple. 2. Any small chamber or storeroom.
- central tower: In a special sense, that at the crossing of a church, and therefore resting upon open arches and detached piers…
- centralized plan: One arranged around a center, rather than an axial plan (as in a basilican church)…
- chai t’ang: In a Chinese religious establishment, a room which serves as a reception area for vegetarians.
- chalcidic: A portico, or hall supported by columns, or any addition of like character connected with any ancient basilica; hence a similar addition to a Christian church. 2. In a Christian basilica, the narthex. 3. In ancient Roman architecture, a building for judicial functions.
- chalcidicum: A portico, or hall supported by columns, or any addition of like character connected with any ancient basilica; hence a similar addition to a Christian church. 2. In a Christian basilica, the narthex. 3. In ancient Roman architecture, a building for judicial functions.
- chancel: The sanctuary area in a church, near the altar, reserved for the clergy and choir.
- chancel arch: An arch which, in many churches, marks the separation of the chancel or sanctuary from the nave or body of the church.
- chantry: Strictly speaking, the endowment of priest, chapel, or altar for masses sung for a founder’s soul. Architecturally it is taken to mean the founder’s chapel of a church or monastery, often containing his tomb.
- chantry chamber: The room or rooms used by the priest or priests who were attached to a chantry.
- chevet: An apse having a surrounding ambulatory; usually opens into three or more chapels which radiate from the apse.
- choraula: A room allotted to choir rehearsals in a church.
- cimborio: Spanish term for the lantern or dome above the intersection of nave and transepts in a church.
- cimeliarch: The treasury of a church for storing valuables such as ceremonial garb and holy objects.
- cimelium: A room in a church for the safekeeping of vestments and other treasures.
- cloister: A paved and sheltered passageway, usually along the walls of an enclosed court, and thus open on one side. 2. The court and its passage.
- conch: Quarter-spherical cupola or dome over an apse or niche. 2. Pendentive. 3. Shell motif over a niche, etc.
- concha: Semidome vaulting of an apse.
- consessus: The apse or other presbytery in a church; a place for seats of the clergy.
- consistorium: A spiritual court, or assembly of the college of cardinals, at Rome. 2. The privy councils of the Roman emperors, of kings, nobles, and abbots.
- coro: An elaborate choir, at times almost an independent building, commonly placed to the west of the transept in a Spanish cathedral.
- counter apse: An apse opposite another; many double apses have a crypt below the western apse.
- crossing: The intersection of nave and transepts in the cruciform plan.
- crossing square: The area in a church that is formed by the intersection (crossing) of a nave and transept of equal width.
- cross-in-rectangle: Church plan, common in Armenia.
- cross-in-square plan: A Byzantine centralized church plan of nine bays in which the central bay and the middle bay on each side are domed. See quincunx plan.
- croude: Terms for the crypt of a church.
- crowd: Terms for the crypt of a church.
- cruciform: Descriptive of the characteristic form of Gothic church plans – nave, apse, and transepts.
- crypt: A vaulted space under part of a building, wholly or partly underground; in Medieval churches, normally the portion under an apse or a chevet.
- cul de four: A half-dome or quarter-sphere vault, as over an apse or niche.
- cul-de-four: A half-dome or quarter-sphere vault, as over an apse or niche.
- decani side: The south side of a church, or the side on the right of one facing the altar.
- east end: The end of a church where the principal altar is placed; so called because medieval churches almost invariably had their sanctuaries at the east end and the main doors at the west end.
- Easter sepulcher: In some churches, a shallow recess in which sacred elements are placed from Maundy Thursday to Easter.
- Easter sepulchre: In some churches, a shallow recess in which sacred elements are placed from Maundy Thursday to Easter.
- epistle side: The south side of a church when the altar is at the east end; the Epistle is read from that side of the altar.
- esonarthex: The second narthex from the entrance, when two are present.
- exhedra: A large semicircular alcove (annex) to a central space (particularly in Classical architecture).
- exonarthex: The narthex nearest the entrance, when two are present.
- foot-pace: Daïs or raised floor at the upper end of a hall. 2. Raised floor in a church-sanctuary where the altar is sited. 3. Landing in a stair.
- forechurch: A consecrated extension in front of a larger church.
- gabled nave: In a church a nave with a gabled form.
- gaililee: A narthex or chapel for worship at the west end of a church. 2. A chapel connected with some early medieval churches, to which monks returned after processions, in which ecclesiastics were allowed to meet women who were related to them, and where the worthy dead were buried.
- Galilee: A porch or chapel sometimes attached to the west end of a church or cathedral.
- galilee porch: A galilee when it has direct communication with the exterior, and thus can be considered as a vestibule to the main church.
- Greek-cross plan: Church plan in the form of a Greek cross, with a square central mass and four arms of equal length. The Greek-cross plan was widely used in Byzantine architecture and in Western churches inspired by Byzantine examples.
- gynaeceum: In Greek archaeology, that part of a large dwelling which is devoted to the women, hence, the family rooms as distinguished from the more public rooms where the master and his soldiers or male dependents commonly lived. 2. In modern times a harem; the living place of the women in a dwelling of any nation or epoch. 3. In ecclesiology, that part of a church occupied by women to the exclusion of men, as in early Christian practice, and still to a certain extent in the East.
- gynaecium: In Greek archaeology, that part of a large dwelling which is devoted to the women, hence, the family rooms as distinguished from the more public rooms where the master and his soldiers or male dependents commonly lived. 2. In modern times a harem; the living place of the women in a dwelling of any nation or epoch. 3. In ecclesiology, that part of a church occupied by women to the exclusion of men, as in early Christian practice, and still to a certain extent in the East.
- gyneaceum: That part of a Greek house or a church reserved for women.
- gyneceum: That part of a Greek house or a church reserved for women.
- gyneconitis: The section of the Greek church reserved for women.
- high chancel: The central or principal part of a chancel in a large church where there are aisles or a deambulatory. The need of the term comes from the confusion between the use of choir, chancel, etc., to denote particular sacred enclosures, and the use of the same terms to denote the entire easterly division of the building.
- imafronte: The central part of the facade of a church.
- intersection: Of a cruciform plan, the crossing.
- intersticium: The crossing in a cruciform church.
- interstitium: The crossing in a cruciform church.
- katholikon: The central nave of a church. 2. The church of a monastery.
- kliros: The choir platform in a Russian Orthodox church.
- Langchor: Choir style used in the churches of German mendicant orders, separated from the nave by a screen.
- lectrinum: The place in a Christian church from which parts of the Scripture were read.
- matroneum: To the right of the sanctuary in an ancient basilican church, a place for matrons, separated by a balustrade with a door opening onto a lower section for unmarried females.
- narthex: An enclosed passage between the main entrance and the nave of a church, usually colonnaded or arcaded.
- nave: The large central volume of a church or cathedral flanked by side aisles. From the Latin navis for ship or naval.
- night-stair: Stair in the south transept of an abbey-church leading from the dormitory.
- north porch: A porch which shelters the entrance to a church; located on the left side of the church as one faces the altar.
- north side: Side of a church facing north, regarded as the source of cold winds and the haunt of the Devil (hence Devil’s door, meaning north door).
- obraznaya: The room in which icons are kept in a Russian Orthodox church.
- opera del duomo: The workshop or museum of an Italian cathedral.
- organ chamber: That room or space in which the organ is placed; often, in a church, a separate structure between the choir and a transept, or beside the choir, with a large open archway between…
- papert: The parvis of a Russian Orthodox church.
- Paradise: The court of the atrium in front of a church. 2. The garth of a cloister. 3. A Persian pleasure garden, usually elaborately planted.
- paratorium: The place at the east end of a basilican church, usually on the north side, for the offerings; in some Greek churches, located on the south side.
- parvis: The entrance court of a church or palace.
- parvise: The entrance court of a church or palace.
- pastophorium: One of two rooms on either side of the chancel of an Early-Christian or Byzantine church.
- pastrophory: A room in an Early Christian or Byzantine church, usually off the apse.
- penetralia: The interior part of a building, as a sanctuary. 2. An inner apartment.
- porticus: Entrance-porch of a church. 2. Church apse. 3. Structure over a medieval tomb (also called porticulus). 4. Long covered ambulatory with a roof carried on colonnades, sometimes attached to a building, and sometimes a separate structure. 5. Room or side-chapel projecting from the nave of a church entered through arches in the nave-walls… 5. Arched arbor (sometimes called portique) or garden-walk under a pergola. 7. As portico.
- presbyterium: In a church, the space in the chancel set aside for the clergy.
- presbytery: The part of a church reserved for the officiating clergy.
- pritvor: The narthex of a Russian Orthodox church.
- proaulion: In the early Church, and in the modern Greek Church, the porch or vestibule of the church; an outer porch before the narthex.
- retrochoir: A chapel behind the high altar of a church but in front of the Lady chapel if there is one.
- revestry: Old form of vestry.
- ridel: Same as riddle.
- sacristry: A room where church vestments and sacred vessels are kept, and where the clergy robe.
- sacristy: A room where church vestments and sacred vessels are kept, and where the clergy robe.
- sanctuary: That part of a church where the principal altar is situated.
- scallage: Scallage or scallenge is a provincial word used in Herefordshire for the detached covered porch at the entrance of the churchyard, commonly called a Lichgate.
- scallenge: Scallage or scallenge is a provincial word used in Herefordshire for the detached covered porch at the entrance of the churchyard, commonly called a Lichgate.
- schola: The apse or alcove containing a tub in Roman baths. 2. A platform or ambulatory around an ancient Roman (warm) bath. 3. An exedra or alcove in a palaestra for relaxation or conversation.
- semidome: A dome equivalent to one-quarter of a hollow sphere, covering a semicircular area, such as an apse.
- senatorium: The left side of the sanctuary in the basilica of the Latin church, opposite the matroneum, and separated from the sanctuary by a balustrade.
- smoke tower: Any high construction, more important than a chimney stack, used to convey smoke from a building to the outer air, as in some churches.
- south porch: A porch which shelters the entrance to a church; located on the right side of the church as one faces the altar.
- tiburio: Tower or lantern over the crossing of a church (i.e. Milan Cathedral).
- transept: The part of a cruciform church with an axis that crosses the main axis at right angles.
- transepts: In a cruciform church the rectangular projections representing the cross-bar of the cross.
- trapeznaya: A refectory in the monastery of a Russian Orthodox church.
- trascoro: In Spanish church architecture, a part of the choir separated from the main choir by an open passage at the crossing.
- triapsidal: Having three apses, either side by side or forming a cloverleaf pattern at the sanctuary end of a church.
- tribelon: A triple arcade which connects the nave with the narthex.
- tribune: A dais for the magistrates’ seats in the apse of a Roman basilica; hence a platform, dais, or rostrum.
- triconch: Having apses with semidomes on three sides of a square chamber; some churches, chapels, and tombs are built on this plan.
- undercroft: A vaulted basement of a church or secret passage, often wholly or partly below ground level. 2. A crypt.
- vestry: A room in which ecclesiastical vestments, sacred vessels, and the like are stored, and in which the clergy and choristers robe for church services.
- vestry hall: In England and in some of the English colonies, a hall in which the inhabitants or ratepayers of a parish, or their representatives, meet for the dispatch of the official business of the parish.
- west end: The end of a church that is opposite the sanctuary; usually where the main doors are located; so called because medieval churches almost invariably had their sanctuaries at the east end.
- westwerk: Large structure with several floors built on the western end of the church, typical of Carolingian church architecture, serving political and civil functions. It is shaped like a tower and is usually framed by a pair of stair turrets; internally it is composed of a vestibule beneath an open tribune wrapped by a two-story ambulatory. During the Ottonian age it evolved into the Westbau.
- westwork: In German Romanesque, a monumental entrance to a church consisting of porches and towers, with a chapel above.
- west-work: Westwerk in German, i.e. massive, wide, tower-like west front of an early Romanesque or Carolingian church containing an entrance-vestibule with a chapel and other rooms over it opening to the upper part of the nave…
- zeta: A closed or small chamber. 2. A room over a porch of an early Christian church, where the porter or sexton lived and where documents were kept.
- ambo: A reading desk or pulpit in early Christian churches.
- ambon: A reading desk or pulpit in early Christian churches.
- ambones: A reading desk or pulpit in early Christian churches.
- analogion: A lectern or ambo.
- analogium: A lectern or ambo.
- analoi: A pulpit or lectern in the Russian Orthodox church.
- dictorium: Same as ambo.
- lectern: An ecclesiastical reading desk.
- lectorium: The place in a Christian church from which parts of the Scripture were read.
- litany desk: A kneeling bench with a low desk or bookrest placed at the head of the nave before the chancel door or gate, and used in the Church of England and in the Protestant Episcopal Church in America by the clergyman or clerk when reciting the litany.
- Decalogue: Parts of a reredos in a church on which the Ten Commandments are set out, commonly found in England from 17th c. It may also be in the form of separate framed panels on a church-wall.
- dorsel: Reredos. 2. Embroidered cloth suspended over the rear of an altar. 3. Ornamental hanging suspended at the backs of sedilia or elsewhere at the sides of a chancel. 4. Stall with a back to it, as in Collegiate church or cathedral. 5. High wainscoting or paneling.
- dosel: Same as reredos.
- dossal: Same as reredos. 2. A hanging of silk, satin, damask, or cloth of gold at the back of an altar of a church and sometimes also at the sides of the chancel.
- dossel: Same as reredos. 2. A hanging of silk, satin, damask, or cloth of gold at the back of an altar of a church and sometimes also at the sides of the chancel.
- reredos: An ornamental screen behind an altar.
- retablo: Both from the Spanish word retablo, meaning ‘tablet’, in reference to a frame for decorative panels at the back of an altar. Retables, which became widespread in Europe in the 14th century, most of all in Spain, can be richly decorated with painting or sculpture, and can include several compartments. There is also the similar reredos.
- celura: Part of the roof (especially a wagon-roof) of a church, paneled, decorated, and colored, immediately above an altar or Rood.
- Golgotha: Burial-ground or charnel-house. 2. Carved timber base of a Rood from which the figures of the Crucified Christ, St. Mary, and St. John rise, as at St. Andrew’s Church, Cullompton, Devon.
- holy loft: Same as rood loft.
- organ screen: An ornamental screen of stone or timber which closes off the organ chamber in a church. 2. A rood screen which supports an organ.
- rode: Middle English form of rood.
- rood altar: An altar standing against the nave side of a rood screen.
- rood arch: The central arch in a rood screen; rarely, the arch between nave and chancel over the rood.
- rood beam: A horizontal beam extending across the entrance to the chancel of a church to support the rood.
- rood loft: A gallery over a rood screen.
- rood screen: A screen in the chancel, supporting the rood.
- rood stairs: Stairs by which the rood loft is approached.
- rood tower: A tower built over the crossing and hence approximately above the rood.
- singing gallery: A gallery for singing, usually in churches of the Italian Renaissance, richly decorated with carving; a rood loft.
- camarin: A room in which privacy may be found – the sacristy or vestry of a church; the greenroom or actors’ dressing-room of a theater; a closet.
- diaconicon: Originally a place where the deacons kept the vessels used for the church service. 2. In Greek churches, a sacristy to the right of the sanctuary.
- diaconicum: In ancient churches, a place roughly equivalent to the sacristy.
- dyakonik: The sacristy in a Russian Orthodox church.
- paratory: In a church, a place where any preparation is made; a vestry or sacristy.
- riznitsa: A sacristy in a Russian Orthodox church.
- sacrarium: Any consecrated place, in Roman or medieval architecture; a shrine, a chapel, or a sacristy for keeping liturgical objects. 2. In ancient Rome, a sort of family chapel in a private house, in which the images of the penates were kept.
- salutatorium: In medieval churches, a porch or a portion of the sacristy where the clergy and the people could meet and confer.
- scenophylacium: Originally a place where the deacons kept the vessels used for the church service. 2. In Greek churches, a sacristy to the right of the sanctuary. Also see diaconicon.
- sceuophylacium: Originally a place where the deacons kept the vessels used for the church service. 2. In Greek churches, a sacristy to the right of the sanctuary. Also see diaconicon.
- secretarium: A sacristy.
- sextry: The sacristy of a church.
- haikal screen: The screen of a sanctuary; in Eastern Christian churches, of other sects than Greek, that which corresponds to the iconostasis.
- parclose: In medieval churches and derivatives, a screen dividing a special space from general space. 2. The parapet round a gallery.
- parclose screen: In a medieval church, a screen around a small altar or shrine.
- perclose: Also see parclose.
- aisle: A part of a church parallel to the nave and divided from it by piers or columns; a passageway between rows of seats, such as in a church or auditorium. 2. A walkway between or along sections of seats in a theater, auditorium, church, or other place of assembly.
- apsis gradata: A bishop’s seat or throne, in ancient churches; raised on steps above the ordinary stalls.
- arm-rest: The arm of a chair, stall, pew, or the like; specifically, such an arm or division between seats or stalls designed to afford considerable support for the arm or elbow, either when sitting or standing; as in a choir stall.
- bench end: A terminal wood facing on a church pew, often decorative.
- bench table: A low stone seat on the inner walls or around piers, usually of churches.
- bishop’s chair: The chair of state in a cathedral church intended for the bishop when presiding at a solemn function…
- bishop’s throne: The seat of state in a cathedral, formerly an axe in the apse; later, generally in the southeast corner of the choir.
- box pew: A church pew screened or enclosed by a high back and sides.
- box-pew: Common English (and American) 18th century pew type (some big enough for entire families) surrounded by tall timber-paneled partitions with a hinged door.
- cathedra: The bishop’s throne in a cathedral.
- chancel bench: A bench, usually of stone, placed against the side of the chancel, either externally or internally, as in some old English churches. Benches in the chancel apparently took the place of more elaborate stalls.
- choir stall: A seat with arms and a high back, often covered with a canopy, for clergy and singers.
- confessional: A small booth furnished with a seat for a priest and a screen or latticed window through which the penitent may talk to the priest, who is hidden; the penitent may or may not be visible to the public.
- dean’s seat: The throne or fixed seat provided for the dean when acting as president of the chapter, as of a cathedral. Occasionally in a chapter house this feature is treated with great elaboration…
- exedra: From Greek ex, “out” plus hedra, “seat.” A seat with a high back, curved in a semicircle. 2. Also a semicircular roofed recess in a building with seats or a curved bench.
- frithstool: In some medieval churches, a stone seat near the altar for those seeking sanctuary or refuge within the church.
- kyptikon: The pew of an emperor; located at gallery level.
- miserere: A ledge on the bottom of a hinged seat in a church; when the seat is raised, the ledge provides some support for a worshiper or choir singer who, in standing, leans against it.
- pew: A benchlike seat for a church interior.
- pew chair: A hinged seat, attached to the end of a church pew.
- popie: The ornamental terminal of a pew end. Also see poppy, poppyhead.
- poppyhead: An ornament generally used for the finials of pew ends and similar pieces of church furniture.
- poppy-head: Carved finial of 15th c. or early-16th c. Gothic bench- or pew-ends, resembling the fleur-de-lys, but often richly decorated with figures, foliage, fruits, and flowers…
- poppyheads: Finials or other ornaments which terminate the tops of bench ends, either to pews or stalls. They are sometimes small human heads, sometimes richly carved images, knots of foliage or finials, and sometimes fleurs-de-lis simply cut out of the thickness of the bench end and chamfered. The term is probably derived from the French poupee doll or puppet used also in this sense, or from the flower, from a resemblance in shape.
- reading pew: In Protestant churches, a pew appropriated to the reading of a part of the service; used instead of a lectern. This term is sometimes extended to the clerk’s desk below the pulpit.
- reading stall: A chancel pew for the use of the priest, situated between the choir stalls and the chancel rail, and from which the lessons and notices are read.
- returned stalls: Stalls in a church which run along the long axis of a cruciform church and which are returned transversely at the western end of the choir.
- sedile: A seat (usually one of three) of the clergy to the right of an altar, often set in a canopied niche in the chancel wall.
- sedilia: Seats for the clergy on the south side of the choir aisle recessed into the church’s masonry.
- shriving pew: Also see confessional.
- shriving seat: Also see confessional.
- slip: A long seat or narrow pew in a church. 2. A narrow passage between two buildings.
- stall: One of a number of seats, enclosed either wholly or in part, at the back of the seats in a chancel or choir, for use of the clergy. 2. A theatre seat, usually one in the front division of the parquet or orchestra stalls; application of the term is variable.
- stalls: Situated in the choir of a church the wooden seats with arms often elaborately carved. They are sometimes surmounted by a canopy, also richly carved.
- synthronon: A bench, in an Early Christian or Byzantine church, reserved for the clergy.
- throne: A seat of state for a sovereign or an ecclesiastical dignitary.
- broach spire: Octagonal spire rising from a square tower without a parapet, with pyramidal forms at the angles.
- broached spire: Octagonal spire rising from a square tower without a parapet, with pyramidal forms at the angles.
- needle spire: A slender spire surmounting the center of a tower roof.
- rood spire: A spire over the crossing of the nave and transepts. Also see fleche.
- spire: A tall, acutely tapering pyramidal structure surmounting a steeple or tower.
- spire light: A window in a spire; frequent in the Early English period, common during the Decorated, and occasional in the Perpendicular.
- spired turret: A turret with a spire.
- spirelet: A small spire as of a pinnacle or turret.
- spire-light: Gabled lucarne on a spire.
- spire-steeple: A spire atop a steeple.
- Achievement of Arms: Collected armorial ensigns consisting of shield of arms, crest, helm, mantling, and motto, with supporters and heraldic badge as appropriate. It is corrupted as hatchment, and this term denotes an Achievement of Arms painted on a diamond-shaped frame hung on a house following a death (and thereafter displayed in a church).
- agnus: The lamb used as a Christian emblem; Agnus Dei, Lamb of God.
- agnus dei: A representation in painting or sculpture of the lamb as typical of Christ.
- ambry: An almery or aumbry; a cupboard or niche near the altar of a church, to hold sacred vessels.
- ambury: Sometimes an alms box in a church. Occasionally a cupboard in a church for the storage of sacred vessels.
- amphithura: In ecclesiastic antiquity, the curtain, parted in the middle, which separated the chancel from the main body of the church.
- arcus toralis: The lattice separating the choir from the nave in a basilica.
- aspersorium: Latin term for a stoup or holy water basin.
- bambino: In Italian, a child or baby. Specifically, an effigy of the child Jesus, as displayed in the churches of Italy.
- baptismal font: Also see font.
- benatura: The vessel for holy water placed inside the entrances to some churches.
- benitier: A basin for holy water, usually set at the entrance to a church.
- bestiary: In a medieval church, a group of carved or painted creatures, often highly imaginative and symbolic.
- brasses: Common term for sepulchral portrait monuments made in brass usually found on the floor of churches.
- bretisement: A decorative cresting at the top of a Gothic screen, panel, parapet, or cornice, generally in the form of openwork of a stylized floral design. Same as brattishing.
- Calvary: In Roman Catholic countries, a representation of the passion of Christ, often of life size, erected on a hill near a city, sometimes near a church, in a chapel, or in a churchyard. 2. A rocky mound or hill on which three crosses are erected; an adjunct to some religious houses.
- cancelli: Bars or thin balusters in a screen or railing; originally the railing dividing the semicircular court of a pagan basilica, and perhaps the origin of “chancel.”
- cancello: A latticed screen used in early churches to separate the choir from the main area of the church.
- cancellus: In Latin, usually in the plural, any barrier or screen formed with bars; particularly the bar between the court and spectators in a pagan basilica, and between the clergy, or clergy and choir, and the congregation in a Christian basilica, whence chancel. The cancelli of antiquity might be of bronze, iron, stone, or wood.
- cantharus: In Roman antiquity, a two-handled cup; hence that part of a fountain which holds the water, or the upper basin only. 2. A basin or fountain of ablutions in the atrium of a mediaeval or early Christina basilica.
- ceilure: A decorative ceiling, especially over the chancel, in medieval church architecture or derivatives. 2. A paneled canopy above an altar or crucifix. See celure.
- chancel rail: The railing or barrier in place of a chancel screen by which the chancel is separated from the nave.
- chancel screen: Screen dividing the chancel from the nave.
- chasse: A container for a saint’s relics.
- church stile: Old English for pulpit.
- colymbion: A basin for holy water in the Greek church.
- communion table: In Protestant churches, a table used instead of an altar in the Communion service.
- corona lucis: A circle or hoop of lights or candles for a church, either suspended or supported on a stand.
- death-lantern: In a churchyard or cemetery, a column surmounted by a lantern (usually behind an ajouré panel) and a cross. Intended to deflect evil spirits, it sometimes had a staircase within the structure, and a lectern or pulpit at the base. In certain situations they also served as beacons. Some were incorporated within chapels.
- Doom: Medieval pictorial presentation of the Last Judgement: it often took the form of a mural over a church chancel-arch, with Christ in the middle, Hell and the damned on His left (the south or right when seen from the nave), and the Blessed on His right (north)…
- fereter: Permanent or portable shrine containing Relics. 2. Construction of a funerary type or association, such as a catafalque or tombchest. A feretory, therefore, is a place in a church or chapel, usually defined, e.g. with a screen, containing a fereter.
- feretory: In a church, a space where major relics are kept, often treated as a chapel behind the main altar.
- feretrum: In a church, a space where major relics are kept, often treated as a chapel behind the main altar.
- font: A basin for the water of baptism, or for holy water.
- font cover: A lid for a baptismal font; usually movable, and suspended above the font either by a counterpoise or by a swinging crane, to all of which apparatus a highly decorative character is generally given. The cover, or lid proper, is usually carried out in the same architectural design, agreeing with that of the font itself. In a few cases the font is enclosed at the top with an immovable structure; a sort of prolongation upward of the bowl itself, but opening on one side, at least, by means of a door.
- font over: A lid for a baptismal font; usually movable, and suspended above the font either by a counterpoise or by a swinging crane, to all of which apparatus a highly decorative character is generally given. The cover, or lid proper, is usually carried out in the same architectural design, agreeing with that of the font itself. In a few cases the font is enclosed at the top with an immovable structure; a sort of prolongation upward of the bowl itself, but opening on one side, at least, by means of a door.
- gazophylacium: A place where precious items were deposited, as a treasury in a palace or in a church.
- gospel side: North side of an altar or church.
- hagiasterion: A sacred place; a baptismal font.
- hatchment: See achievement of arms.
- headstock: A supporting beam for a church bell.
- holy water basin: In French, a holy water basin, usually set at the entrance to a church. The benitier may be supported on a shaft or pedestal or corbelled out from the wall. Also see beniter, pila, and stoup.
- holy water stone: Stone basin containing water, sometimes on a pillar, near the entrance to a church.
- holy-water stock: See stoup.
- hymn board: A notice board in a church, on which the numbers of hymns and psalms are posted.
- icon: A sacred picture, as used in countries where the Greek Church prevails.
- iconostasis: In the Greek Church, a screen corresponding to the altar rail in other churches.
- immissarium: A basin, trough, or other contrivance built on the ground, of stone or brick, to contain a body of water flowing from a reservoir (castellum) of an aqueduct, to accommodate the adjacent neighborhood.
- jube: A screen, usually with gallery, dividing nave and choir in Gothic ecclesiastical work.
- jubé: A screen, usually with gallery, dividing nave and choir in Gothic ecclesiastical work.
- Laudian rails: Altar- or communion-rails, often with balusters, usually of oak, dating from the time when William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury, and endeavored to restore dignity to Anglican worship.
- lich gate: A covered gate at the main entrance of a churchyard, usually protected by a spreading gable roof.
- lich stone: A stone at the entrance to a churchyard, intended to receive a bier.
- lych gate: A sheltering gatehouse near a church or burial ground, under which a bier may be rested.
- lych-gate: A sheltering gatehouse near a church or burial ground, under which a bier may be rested.
- memorial brass: A plate of yellow metal engraved with an effigy or more than one, and with names, dates, texts from scripture, prayers, or the like, set as the decorative and significant part of a tomb, sometimes vertically, as in a wall, sometimes as part of a pavement. The engraved characters are usually filled with black or red pigment…
- mestling: Mastin, mastline, or yellow metal, eg. Brass or latten, used in medieval sepulchral ‘brasses’.
- nutmeg: First-Pointed Northern-English ornament consisting of a series of projections, with a gap between each pair, resembling half-nutmegs of which good examples occur at St. Mary’s Church, Nun Monkton, Yorkshire.
- organ: Originally, almost every kind of musical instrument used in churches, but for long confined to a valved wind instrument with a collection of pipes, played from a keyboard.
- pala: An altarpiece.
- paschal: An architecturally important candlestick in ecclesiastical work, to receive the large paschal candle.
- paschal candlestick: A massive and sometimes fixed and immovable candlestick, arranged in a church to receive the Paschal candle, which is often of great size…
- pertica: In medieval churches, a beam behind the altar from which relics were suspended on festival days.
- pila: In churches in Italy, a holy-water font, consisting of a bowl mounted on a shaft, as distinguished from a font hanging from or secured to a wall or pier. 2. A square block or epistyle, just over the columns, to support a rooftimber. 3. A mortar which is valuable or curious on account of its antiquity or design.
- pilla: A masonry support for roof timbers that is superimposed on a column. 2. In Italy, a free-standing holy water font.
- pillar-piscina: Free-standing piscina set on a short colonnette.
- pix: Also see pix.
- pixis: A shrine to contain the host or consecrated water. Also see pix.
- prismatory: See sedile.
- pyx: Box, casket, shrine or tabernacle to hold the consecrated Host in a church.
- pyxis: Box, casket, shrine or tabernacle to hold the consecrated Host in a church.
- reading desk: In ecclesiology, that which is used to support in a proper position the book of the Gospels or of the Epistles, or, in some forms of worship, the lectionary, the antiphonary, and other service books.
- reliquary: Receptacle in which Relics of Saints are kept. It may be very small, such as a box or casket, or very large, ornate, and magnificent…
- retable: An architectural screen or wall above and behind an altar, usually containing painting, sculpture, carving or other decorations.
- riddle: In a church, one of the pair of curtains enclosing an altar on the north and south; often hung from rods driven into the wall.
- sacrament house: An ambry; used especially for the keeping of the sacred wafer.
- sanctuary knocker: A fitment or ring on the door of a church that could be struck by a fugitive from the law.
- sanctuary screen: Any partition which separates the sanctuary proper from the larger part of the choir.
- stasidion: A still in a Greek church.
- Station of the Cross: One of fourteen shrines in a church, marking successive scenes in the Passion of Christ.
- stoup: Synonym for piscina. 2. A basin for holy water near the church entrance.
- tabula: Niche or cupboard. 2. Metal or wooden altar-frontal. A tabula rasa is a tablet from which the inscription is erased, ready to be written upon again, and can also mean obliteration of history and collective memory.
- tie-bar: The iron rod holding parts of a building together, mostly found in Gothic churches to resist the outward pressure of vaults. It is a feature of Florentine Renaissance buildings.
- abbadia: An abbey church.
- abbatial: Pertaining to an abbey or an abbot.
- amadah: A small temple of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty, near Derri in Nubia, converted by the Coptic Christians into a church. It is one of the few peripteral temples of Egypt, surrounded by square piers with a pronaos of four polygonal columns. It measures 71 feet 6 inches by 32 feet 2 inches. Inscriptions of great historical value remain.
- ambulatory church: A church having a domed center bay which is surrounded on three side by aisles.
- anchorage: Cell or retreat of an anchorite, or person who has withdrawn from this world. They are often found over vestries on the north side of chancels in the North of England, but could be sited elsewhere, usually in churchyards. 2. Any of various means, as embedment length or hooked bars, for developing tension or compression in a reinforcing bar on each side of a critical section in order to prevent bond failure or splitting. 3. A mechanical device for locking a stressed tendon in position and delivering the prestressing force to the concrete, either permanently in a posttensioned member or temporarily during hardening of a pretensioned concrete member. 4. A means for binding a structural member to another or to its foundation, often to resist uplifting and horizontal forces.
- antrum: A temple of the early Christians, who were obliged to perform their devotions in caves (antra).
- apostolaeum: A church dedicated to an apostle and named after him.
- apostolium: A church dedicated to the name of one or more of the apostles.
- badia: Abbreviation of abbadia, an abbey church.
- basilica: The early Greek name for a royal palace; a large oblong building with double columns and a semicircular apse at one end, frequently used by Christian emperors of Rome for religious purposes.
- basilican: Of a church, having an oblong nave flanked by lower aisles, with clerestory windows in the nave walls above the aisle roofs.
- cabildo: Chapter house of a cathedral or collegiate church.
- catabulum: A building or stable in which beasts of burden and carriages were kept for service in ancient times. 2. A shed or common room in which the early Christians officiated.
- center-steeple church: The steeple dominates the façade of the center steeple church. The entire organization builds toward the steeple, including the gable roof, which helps pull the facade skyward. Designs with higher porches may align the windows and doors to broaden the elevation. Fenestration is symmetrical. Ornamentation is light; most walls and tower portions are framed by cornerboards and fascia. In steeple design the tower is about half the height of the entire structure, which leaves the lantern and spire in equal proportions to the tower. The tower may be built into the wall or stand separate from it. When the tower projects from the facade, it often serves as a vestibule. Despite its vertical accent, this type of church is earthbound, directly accessible, and orderly.
- chapel: A place of worship secondary to a church, sometimes a part of the latter, sometimes an independent structure.
- chapel of ease: A church built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently.
- church: Term for an ecclesiastical building used by any Christian denomination.
- church house: A building used for the social and secular activities of a parish.
- churches: A variety of church as defined by plan, tower location, etc. Some examples include ambulatory church, double church, hall church, cross church, antechurch, stave church, gable-end church, temple-front church, round church, cathedral church, side steeple church, center-steeple church, steepled ell church, twin-tower church.
- Collegiate church: Church endowed for a body corporate, or chapter, of dean and canons, attached to it.
- Commissioners’ churches: Following the Napoléonic Wars, it was feared that England might suffer upheavals similar to those of France, and, faced with irreligion, Nonconformity, and an increasing population, the authorities determined to build Anglican churches, numbers of which were erected under the aegis of the Commissioners for Building New Churches…
- cross church: A cruciform church; that is, a church with transepts which project on either side, producing a cross-shaped ground-plan.
- cross-church: A cruciform church; one having a cross-shaped ground plan.
- double church: A church constructed in two stories, affording two places of worship, one above the other; a large hole in the floor of the upper church enables the two congregations to hear the same services.
- dromic: Pertaining to, or having, the form of a Grecian Dromos; said of the early type of Eastern churches, the plan of which is similar to the dromos. In this sense, equivalent to Basilican. Also see dromical.
- dromical: Pertaining to, or having, the form of a Grecian Dromos; said of the early type of Eastern churches, the plan of which is similar to the dromos. In this sense, equivalent to Basilican. Also see dromical.
- eopyla: Greek term for a church with an apse at the eastern end.
- eothola: Greek term for a church with an apse at the western end.
- gable-end church: As indicated by its name, the gable-end church exposes a broad gable to the street, the facade being subdivided into a few simple forms. Three-bay organization—window-entrance-window—is most common. Since the scale of these buildings is often residential, it is not surprising to find residential gable ornament on their facades. The ornamentation scheme includes shingles that divide the gable visually from the rest of the wall, stickwork at the head of the gable, and brackets at the eaves. The small tower, steeple, and spire are rarely taller than the façade itself. There is a two-story version of the gable-end that may not carry any other design element. A large, broad gable rises sharply to the full height, and the wall is pierced by windows, usually stained glass. The entrance is built on the center axis of the facade. This kind of building may not have any tower on the roof nor any other intersecting sections. The side elevations may feature large windows to light the broad central space.
- gospel hall: House for Protestant Christian worship.
- hall church: A church with aisles but without clerestories, the interior of which is a hall of approximately uniform height throughout.
- hall-church: Church with aisles but without a clerestory, the nave and aisles being of the same or about the same height…
- hallenbau: A building resembling a hall in its construction or plan; especially in German church architecture, a church whose aisles are carried to a height equal or nearly equal to that of the nave, so that there will be no clearstory, and so that the whole interior shall appear as a large hall divided by two (or more) ranges of columns carrying arches.
- Hallenkirche: A hall church.
- Jesuits, Church of Il Gesu: Famous church in Rome designed (1568-73) by Vignola (1507-73), which set the standard for ecclesiastical architecture during the early Baroque.
- kirk: A church, especially in Scotland.
- kirke: A church, especially in Scotland.
- krestokupolnyi: A Russian Orthodox church having a dome over the crossing.
- li pai tien: In China, a main hall used for worship and for performing ritual ceremonies. 2. A Christian church in China.
- meeting-house: Building for Nonconformist (usually Presbyterian or Quaker) religious observances.
- notre dame: In French, “Our Lady”; a common dedication of French churches, and giving the popular name to more cathedrals than any other ecclesiastical title…
- pilgrimage-church: Although many great churches were places of pilgrimage because of the Relics contained therein, the term is especially given to those churches on pilgrimage routes….
- repositorium: A place for the disposition or storage of anything; especially, in a Roman temple, a place of votive offerings and treasure; in a church, an ambry.
- round church: One whose plan is a circle; by extension, a church designed around a central vertical axis such as those of polygonal or Greek-cross form, though these are more accurately described as churches of the central type.
- side steeple church: The placement of the steeple to the side requires a bolder window treatment on the facade in order to balance the design. A grouping of windows or a large window with subdivisions is quite common. Other elements that contribute to the unification of the design seem to stem from the power of the gable to focus on simple geometric shapes, many of which can be echoed in the steeple. In churches that have north-south as well as east-west gables, gable-end treatments may vary. North-south gables may also reflect modest transepts; however, transepts are not standard on vernacular churches, as most employ deep, wide naves…
- stave church: A Norwegian mast-framed steep-roofed church of the 12th and 13th century, constructed entirely of wood, highly original in structure and with fantastic semipagan decorative features.
- stave-church: Timber-framed/timber-walled Scandinavian church type (from early 11th c.), built of staves. Later examples have elaborate tiered roofs.
- stavkirke: ‘Stave church’, a type of timber church found in northern Europe, most of all Scandinavia.
- steepled ell church: The steepled ell has a different design from other gable-end types. It utilizes larger design elements and bolder massing. The gables themselves are wide, and each section can be built as high as two stories. With this kind of configuration, the design consists of large geometric pieces. Even the trim boards are cut to emphasize the geometry: many are wide boards painted a color complementary to the wall, so that the trim outlines and frames entire sections. At the ell the tower may stand alone or be built partially into the wall. Vertically, the tower and lantern are about the same height as the gable on the facade, with the spire about one third the height of the tower and lantern combined. Steepled ells with high-style intentions often have boxed buttresses at the corners of the tower and along the nave, with surrounds about the doors and windows. Such designs imitate historical masonry construction. The steepled ell was not a heavily ornamented building. Decorative effects were limited to color (whether paint or in the cladding), some trim work, the tower, and the windows. For the latter, stained glass was often used in the gable ends.
- temple church: In general, a church belonging, or which has belonged, to a post or fortress of the Knights Templar…
- temple-front church: In temple-front churches a large portico projects from the facade. Although the portico derives from historic architecture, the use of orders is not extensive; Tuscan seems the most popular. The portico is frequently tall enough to obscure the roof and the main body of the church, but the side aisles of the nave often project beyond the width of the portico. This arrangement sets up an echo of pediment forms: the raking cornice of the pediment is repeated on the roof of the nave, so that the two forms establish parallel planes. To tie the planes to the same structure, the second cornice—that of the nave roof—may incorporate a return, so that the building’s lines move back toward the center. The focus of this kind of design is on orderly, rational design; a great deal of wall space is given over to windows in order to admit large quantities of light. Light, of course, is symbolically associated with rationality and the power of reason. The walls exhibit little division since the fenestration is the primary organizer of the side elevations, just as the portico is the prime mover of the facade. There is little ornamentation on these buildings. With the emphasis on rational order, even the entablatures are plain. Occasionally one finds an urn or a carved piece in the broken pediment over the entrance door.
- twin-tower church: The twin-tower church — the most elaborate of all—seeks to enhance the west wall. The towers dominate the whole scheme, but towers and wall are integrated through proportional vertical and horizontal elements. For example, the width of the wall may be one-and-a-half or two times the width of a tower, and sections of the wall and tower may align through string courses and cornices. These churches reflect historical treatments of facades and accordingly have special windows, moldings, and other accents.
- Wallfahrtskirche: Pilgrimage-church in German-speaking lands.
- Waterloo church: See commissioners’ Gothic.
- westbau: Evolution of the Carolingian west-work, a result of the loss of the political and civil uses of Ottonian churches. It is a large turreted body on the western side of the church; it later assumed the form of the harmonic facade.
Also see Architecture index.