Ambulatory

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Ambulatory

The ambulatory (Med. Lat. ambulatorium, a place for walking

Walking

Walking is the main form of animal locomotion on Earth, distinguished from running and crawling . When carried out in shallow waters, it is usually described as wading and when performed over a steeply rising object or an obstacle it becomes scrambling or climbing....
, from ambulare, to walk) is the covered passage around a cloister

Cloister

A cloister is a covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church usually indicates that it is part of a monastic foundation....
; a term applied sometimes to the procession way around the east end of a cathedral

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop. It is a Religion building for worship, specifically of a denomination with an episcopal hierarchy, such as the Roman Catholic Church, Anglicanism, Orthodox Christian and some Lutheranism churches, which serves as a bishop's seat, and thus as the central church of a dioc...
or large church and behind the high altar

Altar

An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices and votive offerings are made for religion, or some other sacred place where ceremonies take place....
.

Aisles that line the nave

Nave

In Romanesque architecture and Gothic architecture Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and Church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar....
extend through the transept

Transept

Full descriptions of the elements of a Gothic floorplan are found at the entry Cathedral diagram.'For the periodical go to The Transept....
and continue in a half-circle that runs behind the apse

Apse

In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault . In Romanesque architecture, Byzantine architecture and Gothic architecture Christian abbey, cathedral and church architecture, the term is applied to the semi-circular or polygonal section of the sanctuary at the liturgical east end beyond the altar....
. Along the ambulatory, there are small chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used as a place for fellowship and of worship for Christians. It may be attached to an institution such as a large Church , a college, a hospital, a palace, a prison or a cemetery, or may be an entirely free-standing building, sometimes with its own grounds....
s (chantries

Chantry

Chantry is the England term for the establishment of an institutional chapel on private land or within a greater church, where a priest would chant Mass ....
). This modification by Romanesque

Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is the term that is used to describe the architecture of Middle Ages Europe which evolved into the Gothic architecture style beginning in the 12th century....
architects allowed visitors to move freely around the altar without disturbing the monk

Monk

A Monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, the unconditioning of mind and body in favor of the realization of one's true nature, and does so living either alone or with any number of like-minded people, whilst always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose....
s' devotions.

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