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Amiens Cathedral floorplan: massive piers support the west end towers; transepts are abbreviated; seven radiating chapels form the chevet reached from the ambulatory. In Western ecclesiastical architecture, a cathedral diagram is a floor plan showing the sections of walls and piers, giving an idea of the profiles of their columns and ribbing.
Church architecture refers to the architecture of Christian buildings, such as churches, chapels, convents, seminaries, etc.It has evolved over the two thousand years of the Christian religion, partly by innovation and partly by borrowing other architectural styles as well as responding to changing beliefs, practices and local traditions.
The nave (/ n eɪ v /) is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. [1] [2] When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type building, the strict definition of the term "nave" is restricted to the central aisle. [1]
The church building is divided into three main parts: the narthex , the nave (the temple proper) and the sanctuary (also called the altar or holy place). A major difference of traditional Orthodox churches from Western churches is the absence of any pews in the nave.
A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. [1] In cruciform ("cross-shaped") churches, in particular within the Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architectural traditions, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave. Each half of a transept is known as a ...
A schematic plan showing the elements and orientation that are common to many churches. Liturgical east and west is a concept in the orientation of churches.It refers to the fact that the end of a church which has the altar, for symbolic religious reasons, is traditionally on the east side of the church (to the right in a diagram).
Plan of a Western cathedral, with the narthex in the shaded area at the western end. Floorplan of the Chora Church, showing both inner and outer narthex.. The narthex is an architectural element typical of early Christian and Byzantine basilicas and churches consisting of the entrance or vestibule, located at the west end of the nave, opposite the church's main altar. [1]
In a church in which part of the body of the church extends beyond the transept, then this extension is architecturally termed the "chancel", for which the stricter definition includes only the choir and the sanctuary with the high altar, but in the common wider definition includes the whole eastern arm beyond the crossing. [28]