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A partial plan of a church using the double bay system (Speyer Cathedral).The nave in the center uses large vaults (green), while side aisles use half-sized vaults (blue).The nave exhibits the alternation of supports (black), where the supports carrying the large vault are thicker than the ones only carrying the smaller vaults
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]
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.
A cathedral is symbolically a ship bearing the people of God through the storms of life. In addition, the high wooden roof of a large church is similarly constructed to the hull of a ship. [25] [better source needed] The nave is braced on either side by lower aisles, separated from the main space by a row of piers or columns.
"Nave" (Medieval Latin navis, "ship") was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting. [1] The nave of a church, whether Romanesque, Gothic or Classical, extends from the entry (which may have a separate vestibule, the narthex) to the chancel and is flanked by lower aisles [2] separated from the nave by an arcade.
Construction of a long nave, with the tower now at one end. [6] Usually the extension would be to the east, producing a west tower. [7] However, this is only a hypothesis; [5] we have only one surviving Anglo-Saxon timber church, Greensted Church, a small number of written descriptions, and some archaeological evidence of ground plans. [8]
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.
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]