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In architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
, the apse (Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 absis "arch, vault"; sometimes written apsis; plural apses) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault
Vault (architecture)

A Vault is an architecture term for an arched form used to provide a space with a ceiling or roof. The parts of a vault exert a thrust that require a counter Friction....
. In 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....
, Byzantine
Byzantine architecture

Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine I moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to Byzantium....
 and Gothic
Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture which flourished during the high and late Middle Ages. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
 Christian abbey
Abbey

An abbey , is a Christianity monastery or convent, under the government of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community....
, 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...
 and church architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
, the term is applied to the semi-circular or polygonal section of the sanctuary at the liturgical east end beyond the 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....
. Geometrically speaking, an apse is either a half-cone or half-dome.

Definition
The epithet "apsidal" may be applied to the exedra
Exedra

In architecture, an exedra is a semicircular recess, often crowned by a half-dome, which is usually set into a building's facade. The original Greek sense was applied to a room that opened onto a stoa, ringed with curved high-backed stone benches, a suitable place for a philosophical conversation....
 of classical architecture
Classical architecture

Classical architecture is the set of building styles and techniques of Classical Greece, as used in ancient Greece, the Hellenistic period, and the Roman empire....
, a feature of the secular Roman basilica
Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a ancient Rome public building , usually located in the Forum of a Roman town. In Hellenistic cities, public basilicas appeared in the 2nd century BC....
, which provided some prototypes for Early Christian churches.






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In architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
, the apse (Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 absis "arch, vault"; sometimes written apsis; plural apses) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault
Vault (architecture)

A Vault is an architecture term for an arched form used to provide a space with a ceiling or roof. The parts of a vault exert a thrust that require a counter Friction....
. In 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....
, Byzantine
Byzantine architecture

Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine I moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to Byzantium....
 and Gothic
Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture which flourished during the high and late Middle Ages. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
 Christian abbey
Abbey

An abbey , is a Christianity monastery or convent, under the government of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community....
, 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...
 and church architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
, the term is applied to the semi-circular or polygonal section of the sanctuary at the liturgical east end beyond the 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....
. Geometrically speaking, an apse is either a half-cone or half-dome.

Definition


The epithet "apsidal" may be applied to the exedra
Exedra

In architecture, an exedra is a semicircular recess, often crowned by a half-dome, which is usually set into a building's facade. The original Greek sense was applied to a room that opened onto a stoa, ringed with curved high-backed stone benches, a suitable place for a philosophical conversation....
 of classical architecture
Classical architecture

Classical architecture is the set of building styles and techniques of Classical Greece, as used in ancient Greece, the Hellenistic period, and the Roman empire....
, a feature of the secular Roman basilica
Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a ancient Rome public building , usually located in the Forum of a Roman town. In Hellenistic cities, public basilicas appeared in the 2nd century BC....
, which provided some prototypes for Early Christian churches. The apse in the Roman basilica was often raised (as the sanctuary generally still is) as a hieratic feature that set apart the magistrates who deliberated within it.
St Chads in Poulton Le Fylde
Monreale Bjs 3
The apse as a semicircular projection (which may be polygonal on the exterior, or reveal the radiating projections of 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) may be roofed with a half-dome or with radiating vault
Vault (architecture)

A Vault is an architecture term for an arched form used to provide a space with a ceiling or roof. The parts of a vault exert a thrust that require a counter Friction....
ing. A simple apse may be merely embedded within the wall of the east end. Eastern orthodox churches may have a triple apse, which is usually a mark of Byzantine
Byzantine architecture

Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine I moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to Byzantium....
 influence when it is seen in Western churches.
Yarspas
Stouen2
Smaller subsidiary apses may be found around the choir or even at the ends of 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....
s. An exedra or apse may be reduced in scale to form a niche
Niche (architecture)

The niche is ouner place in classical architecture is an exedra or an apse that has been reduced in size, retaining the half-dome heading usual for an apse....
 within the thickness of walling; a niche does not reveal its presence by projecting on the exterior. Where an apse contains an altar or throne it can be architecturally referred to as a tribune
Tribune (architecture)

Tribune is an ambiguous often misused architecture term which can have several meanings.The word stems from medieval Latin tribuna, from classical Latin tribunal, the elevated placing of a Tribune or other Roman magistrate's seat for official functions such as throne....
.

The interior of the apse is traditionally a focus of iconography
Iconography

Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Ancient Greek e???? and ??afe?? ....
, bearing the richest concentration of mosaics, or painting and sculpture, towards which all other decoration may tend.

Parts of the apse


In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the south apse is known as diaconicon
Diaconicon

The Diaconicon is, in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches Churches, the name given to a chamber on the south side of the central apse of the church, where the vestments, books, etc, that are used in the Divine Services of the church are kept ....
 and the north apse — as prothesis
Prothesis

Prothesis may mean one of the following:*Prothesis is part of the Divine Liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Also the chapel within the sanctuary where this part of the service takes place...
. Various ecclesiastical features of which the apse may form part are drawn together here:

Presbytery

In the presbytery or sanctuary directly to the east beyond the choir
Choir (disambiguation)

The word choir can refer to:* Choir, an ensemble of singers* Choir , the area between the nave and sanctuary in a church or cathedral* Choir, one of the divisions of a Pipe organ ....
 is the High Altar, where there is one (compare communion table
Communion table

A Communion table is used by many Protestant churches, particularly from Reformed, Baptist, Congregational, and non-denominational traditions, for the preparation of the Eucharist....
). This area is reserved for the clergy. The word derives from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 presbuteros meaning "elder".

Choir or Quire

The choir lies between the altar and 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....
.

Chancel

The word "chancel" derives from the French usage of chancel from a Late Latin word cancelli meaning "lattice" (). The grating in question separated the chancel from 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....
, thus "chancel" refers to the part of a church near the main altar used by the priests and open to the choir.

Chevet

In the beginning of the 13th century in France, the apses were built as radiating chapels outside the choir aisle, henceforth known as the chevet (French, "headpiece"), when the resulting structure was too complicated to be merely an "apse". Famous northern French examples of chevets are in the Gothic cathedrals of Amiens
Amiens Cathedral

The Cathedral of Our Lady of Amiens , or simply Amiens Cathedral, is the tallest complete cathedral in France, with the greatest interior volume ....
, Beauvais and Reims. Such radiating chapels are found in England in Norwich
Norwich

Norwich , is a city status in the United Kingdom in Norfolk, East Anglia which is in Eastern England. It is the regional administrative centre and county city of Norfolk....
 and Canterbury
Canterbury

Canterbury lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a local government district of Kent, in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
 cathedrals, but the fully-developed feature is essentially French, though the Francophile connoisseur Henry III
Henry III of England

Henry III was the son and successor of John of England as King of England, reigning for fifty-six years from 1216 to his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester....
 introduced it into Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic architecture Church , in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster....
.

Ambulatory

The word "ambulatory" refers to a curving aisle
Aisle

An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on either side or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other. Aisles can be seen in certain types of buildings such as Church , synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments and legislatures, courtrooms, theatre s, and in certain types of passenger vehicles....
 in the apse that passes behind the choir, giving access to chapels in the chevet. An "ambulatory" ("walking space") may refer to the arcade passages that enclose 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....
 in a monastery
Monastery

Monastery , a term derived from the Greek language word ???ast?????, neut. of ???ast????? - monasterios denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of Monk, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in Cenobium or alone ....
.

See also

  • Cathedral architecture
  • Architectural development of the eastern end of cathedrals in England and France
  • Byzantine architecture
    Byzantine architecture

    Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine I moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to Byzantium....
  • Narthex
    Narthex

    The narthex of a Church is the entrance or lobby area, located at the end of the nave, at the far end from the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex was a part of the church building, but was not considered part of the church proper....
  • Church architecture
    Church architecture

    Church architecture or ecclesiastical architecture refers to the architecture of buildings of Christianity churches. It has evolved over the two thousand years of the Christian religion, partly by innovation and partly by imitating other architectural styles as well as responding to changing beliefs, practices and local traditions....
  • Cathedral architecture of Western Europe
    Cathedral architecture of Western Europe

    A cathedral is a church , usually Roman Catholic, Anglican, or Eastern Orthodox, housing the seat of a bishop. The word cathedral takes its name from the word cathedra, or Bishop's Throne ....
  • Chancel repair liability
    Chancel repair liability

    Chancel repair liability is a liability on some Real estate owners England and Wales to fund repairs to the chancel of their local Church . This responsibility of owners of once rectorial land exists in perpetuity....
     in the United Kingdom
    United Kingdom

    The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....


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