Cathedral architecture of Western Europe

The architecture of cathedrals, basilicas and abbey churches is the architecture of those church buildings which are usually of large size, including most cathedrals, and follow one of several branching traditions of form, function and style that stem initially from Early Christian traditions of the Roman Empire.

Cathedral

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

s in particular, as well as many abbey

Abbey

An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...

churches and basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

s, have certain complex structural forms that are found less often in parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

es. They also tend to display a higher level of contemporary architectural style and the work of accomplished craftsmen, and occupy a status both ecclesiastical and social that an ordinary parish church does not have. Such a cathedral or great church is generally one of the finest buildings within its region and is a focus of local pride. Many cathedrals and basilicas, and a number of abbey churches are among the most renowned works of architecture on the planet. These include St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome; Notre Dame de Paris

Notre Dame de Paris

Notre Dame de Paris , also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra of...

, Cologne Cathedral

Cologne Cathedral

Cologne Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in Cologne, Germany. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and is a World Heritage Site...

, Salisbury Cathedral

Salisbury Cathedral

Salisbury Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England, considered one of the leading examples of Early English architecture....

, Prague Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral

Lincoln Cathedral

Lincoln Cathedral is a historic Anglican cathedral in Lincoln in England and seat of the Bishop of Lincoln in the Church of England. It was reputedly the tallest building in the world for 249 years . The central spire collapsed in 1549 and was not rebuilt...

, the Abbey of St Denis, Paris; the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome; the Basilica of San Vitale

Basilica of San Vitale

The Church of San Vitale — styled an "ecclesiastical basilica" in the Roman Catholic Church, though it is not of architectural basilica form — is a church in Ravenna, Italy, one of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine Art and architecture in western Europe...

, Ravenna; St Mark's Basilica

St Mark's Basilica

The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice, northern Italy. It is the most famous of the city's churches and one of the best known examples of Byzantine architecture...

, Venice; Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...

, London, Saint Basil's Cathedral

Saint Basil's Cathedral

The Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat , popularly known as Saint Basil's Cathedral , is a Russian Orthodox church erected on the Red Square in Moscow in 1555–61. Built on the order of Ivan the Terrible to commemorate the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan, it marks the...

, Moscow, Washington National Cathedral

Washington National Cathedral

The Washington National Cathedral, officially named the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church located in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. Of neogothic design, it is the sixth-largest cathedral in the world, the second-largest in...

, Gaudí's incomplete Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

The ' , commonly known as the Sagrada Família, is a large Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí...

in Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

and the ancient church of Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...

in Istanbul, now a museum.

The earliest large churches date from the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

. As Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

and the construction of churches and cathedrals spread throughout the world, their manner of building was dependent upon local materials and local techniques. Different styles of architecture

Architectural style

Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...

developed and their fashion spread, carried by the establishment of monastic orders, by the posting of bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

s from one region to another and by the travelling of master stonemasons who served as architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

s. The styles of the great church buildings are successively known as Early Christian, 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 moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to...

, Romanesque

Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

, Gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

, Renaissance

Renaissance architecture

Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...

, Baroque

Baroque architecture

Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...

, various Revival

Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

styles of the late 18th to early 20th centuries and Modern

Modern architecture

Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...

. Overlaid on each of the academic styles are the regional characteristics. Some of these characteristics are so typical of a particular country or region that they appear, regardless of style, in the architecture of churches designed many centuries apart.

Function

Among the world's largest and most architecturally significant churches, many were built to serve as cathedrals or abbey churches. Among the Roman Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

churches, many have been raised to the status of "basilica". The categories below are not exclusive. A church can be an abbey, serve as a cathedral, and also be a basilica. Among the great Protestant churches, some, such as Ulm Minster have never served as any of these. Others, such as Westminster Abbey, are former abbeys and cathedrals. Orthodox and Protestant churches do not have designated basilicas, and the term "cathedral" may or may not be used to designate a bishop's principal church. Some significant churches are termed "temples" or "oratories".

Cathedral

Among these types of buildings the cathedral

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

is probably the best known, to the extent that the word “cathedral” is sometimes mistakenly applied as a generic term for any very large and imposing church. In fact, a cathedral does not have to be large or imposing, although many cathedrals are. The cathedral

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

takes its name from the word cathedra
Cathedra
A cathedra or bishop's throne is the chair or throne of a bishop. It is a symbol of the bishop's teaching authority in the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, and has in some sense remained such in the Anglican Communion and in Lutheran churches...

, or "bishop's throne" (in Latin: ecclesia cathedralis). A cathedral has a specific ecclesiatical role and administrative purpose as the seat of a bishop

Bishop

.

The role of bishop as administrator of local clergy

Clergy

Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....

came into being in the 1st century. It was two hundred years before the first cathedral building was constructed in Rome. With the legalising of Christianity in 313 by the Emperor Constantine I, churches were built rapidly. Five very large churches were founded in Rome and, though much altered or rebuilt, still exist today, including the Cathedral of Rome which is San Giovanni in Laterano and also the better-known St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica

The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...

in the Vatican

Vatican City

Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...

.

The architectural form which cathedrals took was largely dependent upon their ritual

Ritual

A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....

function as the seat of a bishop. Cathedrals are places where, in common with other Christian churches, the Eucharist

Eucharist

The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

is celebrated, the Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

is read, the Order of Service

Liturgy

Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...

is said or sung, prayer

Prayer

Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...

s are offered and sermon

Sermon

A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...

s are preached. But in a cathedral, in general, these things are done with a greater amount of elaboration, pageantry and procession than in lesser churches. This elaboration is particularly present during important liturgical rite

Rite

A rite is an established, ceremonious, usually religious act. Rites in this sense fall into three major categories:* rites of passage, generally changing an individual's social status, such as marriage, baptism, or graduation....

s performed by a Bishop, such as Confirmation and Ordination

Ordination

In general religious use, ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart as clergy to perform various religious rites and ceremonies. The process and ceremonies of ordination itself varies by religion and denomination. One who is in preparation for, or who is...

. A cathedral is often the site of rituals associated with local or national Government

Government

Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

, the Bishops performing the tasks of all sorts from the induction of a mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

to the coronation

Coronation

A coronation is a ceremony marking the formal investiture of a monarch and/or their consort with regal power, usually involving the placement of a crown upon their head and the presentation of other items of regalia...

of a monarch. Some of these tasks are apparent in the form and fittings of particular cathedrals.

The church that has the function of cathedral

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

is not always a large building. It might be as small as Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford

Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford

Christ Church Cathedral is the cathedral of the diocese of Oxford, which consists of the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. It is also, uniquely, the chapel of Christ Church, a college of the University of Oxford.-History:...

. But frequently, the cathedral, along with some of the abbey churches, was the largest building in any region.

There were a number of reasons for this:

The cathedral was created to the Glory of God. It was seen as appropriate that it should be as grand and as beautiful as wealth and skill could make it.
As the seat of a Bishop, the Cathedral was the location for certain liturgical rites, such as the Ordination of Priests, which brought together large numbers of clergy and people.
It functioned as an ecclesiastical and social meeting-place for many people, not just those of the town in which it stood, but also, on occasions, for the entire region.
The cathedral often had its origins in a monastic foundation and was a place of worship
Place of worship
A place of worship or house of worship is an establishment or her location where a group of people comes to perform acts of religious study, honor, or devotion. The form and function of religious architecture has evolved over thousands of years for both changing beliefs and architectural style...

for members of a holy order who said the mass privately at a number of small chapels within the cathedral.
The cathedral often became a place of worship and burial for wealthy local patrons. These patrons often endowed the cathedrals with money for successive enlargements and building programs.
Cathedrals are also traditionally places of pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...

, to which people travel from afar to celebrate certain important feast days
Calendar of saints
The calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the feast day of said saint...

or to visit the shrine associated with a particular saint. An extended eastern end is often found at cathedrals where the remains of a saint are interred behind the High Altar.

Basilica

The term basilica, when applied to a church, may be used in two ways. In architectural parlance, it signifies a building that has similarities to the basilica structures of Ancient Rome, being of longitudinal rather than central plan, having a central nave with an aisle on either side separated by a colonnade, and an apse at one end.

In the ecclesiastical sense, a basilica is a church that has been designated as such by the pope, and has accordingly received certain privileges. A building that is designated as a basilica might be a cathedral, an abbey, a shrine

Shrine

A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....

or a parish church. The four so-called "Major Basilicas" are four churches of Rome of 4th century foundation, St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica

, the Basilica of St. John Lateran

Basilica of St. John Lateran

The Papal Archbasilica of St. John Lateran , commonly known as St. John Lateran's Archbasilica and St. John Lateran's Basilica, is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome and the official ecclesiastical seat of the Bishop of Rome, who is the Pope...

, the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls

Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls

The Papal Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls , commonly known as St Paul's Outside the Walls, is one of four churches that are the great ancient major basilicas or papal basilicas of Rome: the basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Peter's and Saint Paul Outside the Walls...

. There are more than 1,500 churches in the world which are designated as “Minor Basilicas”. The reason for such a designation is often that the church is a pilgimage site and contains the relics of a saint

Saint

A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...

, or an object of religious veneration, such as a fragment of the True Cross

True Cross

The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a Christian tradition, are believed to be from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified.According to post-Nicene historians, Socrates Scholasticus and others, the Empress Helena The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a...

. These churches are often large and of considerable architectural significance. They include the Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi; the Church of the Nativity

Church of the Nativity

The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is one of the oldest continuously operating churches in the world. The structure is built over the cave that tradition marks as the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth, and thus it is considered sacred by Christians...

, Bethlehem; the Basilica of Our Lady of Fátima

Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima is a Roman Catholic Marian basilica in Fátima, Portugal...

, Portugal; the Basilica of Our Lady of Sheshan, Shanghai and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a Roman Catholic church, minor basilica and National Shrine of Mexico in the north of Mexico City. The shrine was built nearby the place where Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin...

in Mexico City.

Abbey

An abbey church is one that is, or was in the past, the church of a monastic order. Likewise a friary church is the church of an order of friar

Friar

A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders.-Friars and monks:...

s. These orders include Benedictines, Cistercians, Augustinians

Augustinians

The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...

, Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits and many more. Many churches of abbey foundation, are or previously were, part of a monastic complex that includes dormitories, refectory, cloisters, library, chapter house and other such buildings.

In many parts of the world, abbey churches frequently served the local community as well as the monastic community. In regions such as England where the monastic communities were dissolved, the abbey churches, where located in a town, have continued to serve as a parish church. In many areas of Asia and South America, the abbeys are the earliest established churches, with the monastic communities acting initially as missionaries to the local people. Well-known abbey churches include Santa Maria della Grazie

Santa Maria delle Grazie (Milan)

Santa Maria delle Grazie is a church and Dominican convent in Milan, northern Italy, included in the UNESCO World Heritage sites list...

in Milan, Italy; Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

and Beverley Minster

Beverley Minster

Beverley Minster, in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire is a parish church in the Church of England. It is said to be the largest parish church in the UK....

in England, the Abbaye aux Hommes and Abbey of St. Denis in France, Melk Abbey

Melk Abbey

Melk Abbey or Stift Melk is an Austrian Benedictine abbey, and one of the world's most famous monastic sites. It is located above the town of Melk on a rocky outcrop overlooking the river Danube in Lower Austria, adjoining the Wachau valley....

in Austria, Great Lavra on Mt Athos in Greece and Malate Church

Malate Church

Malate Church is a church in Manila, Philippines. It is a Baroque-style church which faces a small park and beyond that Manila Bay. The church is dedicated to Nuestra Senora de Remedios , the patroness of childbirth...

in Manila, Philippines.

Origins and development of the church building

The church building grew out of a number of features of the Ancient Roman period:

The house church
House church
House church, or "home church", is used to describe an independent assembly of Christians who gather in a home. Sometimes this occurs because the group is small, and a home is the most appropriate place to gather, as in the beginning phase of the British New Church Movement...
The atrium
Atrium (architecture)
In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...
The basilica
The bema
Bema
The Bema means a raised platform...
The mausoleum
Mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...

- centrally-planned building
The cruciform ground plan - Latin or Greek cross

From house church to church

From the first to the early fourth centuries most Christian communities worshipped in private homes, often secretly. Some Roman churches, such as the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome, are built directly over the houses where early Christians worshipped. Other early Roman churches are built on the sites of Christian martyr

Martyr

A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...

dom or at the entrance to catacombs where Christians were buried.
The first very large Christian churches were built in Rome and have their origins in the early 4th century, when the Emperor Constantine first legalised Christianity. Several of Rome's largest churches, notably Santa Maria Maggiore and San Giovanni in Laterano, have their foundation in the 4th century. It is San Giovanni (St John's) and not the more famous St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica

which is the cathedral church of Rome. St Peter's is also of 4th century foundation, though nothing of that appears above the ground.

Atrium

When Early Christian Communities began to build churches they drew on one particular feature of the houses that preceded them, the atrium
Atrium (architecture)
In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...

, or courtyard with a colonnade

Colonnade

In classical architecture, a colonnade denotes a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building....

surrounding it. Most of these atriums have disappeared. A fine example remains at the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome and another was built in the Romanesque period at Sant'Ambrogio, Milan. The descendants of these atria may be seen in the large square cloisters that can be found beside many cathedrals, and in the huge colonnaded squares or piazze at the Basilicas of St Peter's in Rome and St Mark's in Venice and the Camposanto (Holy Field) at the Cathedral of Pisa.

Basilica

Early church architecture did not draw its form from Roman temples, as the latter did not have large internal spaces where worshipping congregations could meet.
It was the Roman basilica

Basilica

, used for meetings, markets and courts of law that provided a model for the large Christian church and that gave its name to the Christian basilica

Basilica

.
Both Roman basilicas and Roman bath houses

Baths of Diocletian

The Baths of Diocletian in Rome were the grandest of the public baths, or thermae built by successive emperors. Diocletian's Baths, dedicated in 306, were the largest and most sumptuous of the imperial baths. The baths were built between the years 298 AD and 306 AD...

had at their core a large vaulted building with a high roof, braced on either side by a series of lower chambers or a wide arcaded passage. An important feature of the Roman basilica was that at either end it had a projecting exedra

Exedra

In architecture, an exedra is a semicircular recess or plinth, often crowned by a semi-dome, which is sometimes 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...

, or apse

Apse

In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...

, a semicircular space roofed with a half-dome. This was where the magistrates sat to hold court. It passed into the church architecture of the Roman world and was adapted in different ways as a feature of cathedral architecture.

The earliest large churches, such as the Cathedral of San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, consisted of a single-ended basilica with one aspidal end and a courtyard, or atrium, at the other end. As Christian liturgy

Liturgy

developed, processions became part of the proceedings. The processional door was that which led from the furthest end of the building, while the door most used by the public might be that central to one side of the building, as in a basilica of law. This is the case in many cathedrals and churches.

Bema

As numbers of clergy increased, the small apse which contained the altar, or table upon which the sacramental bread

Sacramental bread

Sacramental bread, sometimes called the lamb, altar bread, host or simply Communion bread, is the bread which is used in the Christian ritual of the Eucharist.-Eastern Catholic and Orthodox:...

and wine were offered in the rite of Holy Communion, was not sufficient to accommodate them. A raised dais called a bema formed part of many large basilican churches. In the case of St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica

and San Paolo fuori le Mura (St Paul's outside the Walls) in Rome, this bema extended laterally beyond the main meeting hall, forming two arms so that the building took on the shape of a T with a projecting apse. From this beginning, the plan of the church developed into the so-called Latin Cross which is the shape of most Western Cathedrals and large churches. The arms of the cross are called the transept

Transept

For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...

Mausoleum

One of the influences on church architecture

Church architecture

Church architecture refers to the architecture of buildings of Christian 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...

was the mausoleum

Mausoleum

A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...

. The mausoleum of a noble Roman was a square or circular domed structure which housed a sarcophagus

Sarcophagus

A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...

. The Emperor Constantine built for his daughter Costanza a mausoleum which has a circular central space surrounded by a lower ambulatory or passageway separated by a colonnade.
Santa Costanza

Santa Costanza

Santa Costanza is a 4th century church in Rome, Italy, on the Via Nomentana, which runs north-east out of the city, still under its ancient name. According to the traditional view, it was built under Constantine I as a mausoleum for his daughter Constantina who died in 354 AD...

's burial place became a place of worship as well as a tomb. It is one of the earliest church buildings that was centrally, rather than longitudinally planned. Constantine was also responsible for the building of the circular, mausoleum-like Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection by Eastern Christians, is a church within the walled Old City of Jerusalem. It is a few steps away from the Muristan....

in Jerusalem, which in turn influenced the plan of a number of buildings, including that constructed in Rome to house the remains of the proto-martyr Stephen

Stephen

Stephen or Steven is a masculine first name, derived from the Greek name Στέφανος meaning "crown, garland", in turn from the Greek word "στέφανος", meaning "wreath, crown, honour, reward", literally "that which surrounds or encompasses". In ancient Greece a wreath was given to the winner of a...

, San Stefano Rotondo and the Basilica of San Vitale

Basilica of San Vitale

in Ravenna.

Ancient circular or polygonal churches are comparatively rare. A small number, such as the Temple Church, London were built during the Crusades

Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...

in imitation of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as isolated examples in England, France and Spain. In Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

such churches in the Romanesque style are much more numerous. In parts of Eastern Europe there are also round tower-like churches of the Romanesque period but they are generally vernacular architecture and of small scale. Others, like St Martin's Rotunda at Vishegrad, in the Czech Republic, are finely detailed.

The circular or polygonal form lent itself to those buildings within church complexes that perform a function in which it is desirable for people to stand, or sit around, with a centralised focus, rather than an axial one. In Italy the circular or polygonal form was used throughout the medieval period for baptisteries, while in England it was adapted for chapter houses. In France the aisled polygonal plan was adapted as the eastern terminal and in Spain the same form is often used as a chapel.

Other than Santa Costanza and San Stefano, there was another significant place of worship in Rome that was also circular, the vast Ancient Roman Pantheon

Pantheon, Rome

The Pantheon ,Rarely Pantheum. This appears in Pliny's Natural History in describing this edifice: Agrippae Pantheum decoravit Diogenes Atheniensis; in columnis templi eius Caryatides probantur inter pauca operum, sicut in fastigio posita signa, sed propter altitudinem loci minus celebrata.from ,...

, with its numerous statue-filled niches. This too was to become a Christian church and lend its style to the development of Cathedral architecture.

Latin Cross and Greek Cross

Most cathedrals and great churches have a cruciform groundplan. In churches of Western European tradition, the plan is usually longitudinal, in the form of the so-called Latin Cross with a long nave

Nave

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

crossed by a transept

Transept

. The transept may be as strongly projecting as at York Minster

York Minster

York Minster is a Gothic cathedral in York, England and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe alongside Cologne Cathedral. The minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England, and is the cathedral for the Diocese of York; it is run by...

or not project beyond the aisles as at Amiens Cathedral

Amiens Cathedral

The Cathedral of Our Lady of Amiens , or simply Amiens Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral and seat of the Bishop of Amiens...

.

Many of the earliest churches of Byzantium

Byzantium

Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...

have a longitudinal plan. At Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...

, Istanbul, there is a central dome, frame on one axis by two high semi-domes and on the other by low rectangular transept arms, the overall plan being square. This large church was to influence the building of many later churches, even into the 21st century. A square plan in which the nave, chancel and transept arms are of equal length forming a Greek cross, the crossing generally surmounted by a dome became the common form in the Orthodox Church, with many churches throughout Eastern Europe and Russia being built in this way. Churches of the Greek Cross form often have a 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...

or vestibule which stretches across the front of the church. This type of plan was also to later play a part in the development of church architecture in Western Europe, most notably in Bramante's plan for St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica

Architectural forms common to many cathedrals and great churches

Note- Because of the diversity in the individual building histories, this list is a generalised one and not all the characteristics pertain to every building. This list is compiled from Banister Fletcher

Banister Fletcher

Sir Banister Flight Fletcher was an English architect and architectural historian, as was his father, also named Banister Fletcher....

Axis

As described above, the majority of cathedrals and great churches are cruciform in shape with the church having a defined axis. The axis is generally east/west with external emphasis upon the west front, normally the main entrance, and internal emphasis upon the eastern end so that the congregation faces the direction of the coming of Christ

Christ

Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...

. Because it is also the direction of the rising sun, the architectural features of the east end often focus on enhancing interior illumination by the sun. Not every church or cathedral maintains a strict east/west axis, but even in those that do not, the terms East End and West Front are used. Many churches of Rome, notably St Peter's Basilica, face the opposite direction.

Nave

The majority of cathedrals and large churches of the Western European tradition have a high wide nave

Nave

with a lower aisle

Aisle

An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on both sides or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other...

separated by an arcade

Arcade (architecture)

An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....

on either side. Occasionally the aisles are as high as the nave, forming a hall church

Hall church

A hall church is a church with nave and side aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was first coined in the mid-19th century by the pioneering German art historian Wilhelm Lübke....

. Many cathedrals have two aisles on either side. Notre Dame de Paris

Notre Dame de Paris

has two aisles and a row of chapels.

In the case of a centrally planned church, the major axis is that between the main door and the altar.

Transept

The transept

Transept

forms the arms of the church building. In English cathedrals of monastic foundation there are often two transepts. The intersection where the nave and transept meet is called the crossing

Crossing (architecture)

A crossing, in ecclesiastical architecture, is the junction of the four arms of a cruciform church.In a typically oriented church , the crossing gives access to the nave on the west, the transept arms on the north and south, and the choir on the east.The crossing is sometimes surmounted by a tower...

and is often surmounted by a small spire called a flèche
Flèche
A flèche is used in French architecture to refer to a spire and in English to refer to a lead-covered timber spire, or spirelet. These are placed on the ridges of church or cathedral roofs and are usually relatively small...

, a dome or, particularly in England, a large tower with or without a spire.

Vertical emphasis

There is generally a prominent external feature that rises upwards. It may be a dome, a central tower, two western towers or towers at both ends as at Speyer Cathedral

Speyer Cathedral

The Speyer Cathedral, officially the Imperial Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption and St Stephen, in Latin: Domus sanctae Mariae Spirae in Speyer, Germany, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Speyer and is suffragan to the Archdiocese of Bamberg. The cathedral, which is dedicated to St...

. The towers may be finished with pinnacles or spires or a small dome.

Facade

The facade or "west front" is the most ornate part of the exterior with the processional doors, often three in number, and often richly decorated with sculpture, marble or stone tracery. The facade often has a large window, sometimes a rose window or an impressive sculptural group as its central feature.

In the Western European tradition, there are frequently paired towers framing the facade. These towers have their origin in a tradition practised at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection by Eastern Christians, is a church within the walled Old City of Jerusalem. It is a few steps away from the Muristan....

in Jerusalem. During Holy Week

Holy Week

Holy Week in Christianity is the last week of Lent and the week before Easter...

the faithful would process along the Way of the Cross, leading to the Basilica, which in Early Christian times consisted of a domed shrine over the site of the tomb, and a "porch" which had a staircase on either side, supported by a small tower, by which the procession entered and exitted. These towers were adopted symbolically, particularly in Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture

, as corner turrets and flourished in Norman

Norman architecture

About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...

and Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

as large towers, reaching their height of magnificence at Cologne Cathedral

Cologne Cathedral

, where they were not completed until the late 19th century.

East end

The east end is the part of the building which shows the greatest diversity of architectural form. At the eastern end, internally, lies the sanctuary where the altar of the cathedral is located.

Early Christian and Byzantine- A projecting semi-circular apse.
Romanesque- A rounded end. It may be a lower apse projecting from a higher square end, usual in Italy, Germany and Eastern Europe. In France and England the chancel terminated in a high eastern end of semi-circular form, surrounded by an ambulatory
Ambulatory
The ambulatory is the covered passage around a cloister. The term is sometimes applied to the procession way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar....

. While common in France, in England this form has only been retained without significant change at Norwich Cathedral
Norwich Cathedral
Norwich Cathedral is a cathedral located in Norwich, Norfolk, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Formerly a Catholic church, it has belonged to the Church of England since the English Reformation....

.
France, Spain, German and Eastern European Gothic- The eastern end is long and extends into a high vaulted apsidal end. The eastern aisles are continued around this apse, making a lower passage or ambulatory
Ambulatory
The ambulatory is the covered passage around a cloister. The term is sometimes applied to the procession way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar....

. There may be a group of projecting, radiating chapels called a chevet.
English Gothic- The eastern ends show enormous diversity. Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site....

has an apsidal end with ambulatory and projecting chapels. No English Cathedral prior to the 19th century has a fully developed chevet. In the some, notably Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral is a historic Anglican cathedral in Lincoln in England and seat of the Bishop of Lincoln in the Church of England. It was reputedly the tallest building in the world for 249 years . The central spire collapsed in 1549 and was not rebuilt...

, the east end presents a square, cliff-like form while in most this severity is broken by a projecting Lady Chapel
Lady chapel
A Lady chapel, also called Mary chapel or Marian chapel, is a traditional English term for a chapel inside a cathedral, basilica, or large church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary...

. There are also examples of the lower aisle continuing around the square east end.

External Decoration

The external decoration of a cathedral or large church building is often both architectural and pictorial. Decorative architectural devices include columns, pilasters, arcading, cornices, moldings, finials and tracery. The forms taken by these features is one of the clearest indications of the style and date of any particular building. Pictorial elements may include sculpture, painting and mosaic.

Sculpture is the predominant pictorial decorative element in most regions where buildings are of stone construction. In the great medieval churches of France, Spain, England and much of Germany, figurative sculpture is found adorning facades and portals.

Churches of brick, such as those of much of Italy, are often adorned with mosaics, inlays, inset marble friezes and free-standing statues at the roofline. Mosaics were a particular feature of Byzantine architecture and are the main form of adornment of many Orthodox churches, both externally and internally.

The most common theme in the decoration, both external and internal, of any church, is the salvation

Salvation

Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...

of humankind by Jesus Christ. The decorative scheme often functions as a Poor Man's Bible

Poor Man's Bible

The term Poor Man's Bible has come into use in modern times to describe works of art within churches and cathedrals which either individually or collectively have been created to illustrate the teachings of the Bible for a largely illiterate population. These artworks may take the form of carvings,...

, warning the church-goer that, in Biblical terms, the just rewards for his sinful nature is death, and that only through Jesus can forgiveness and redemption be gained. The scheme typically starts outside the church, on the west front, with the portrayal of Christ the Judge

Christ Pantocrator

In Christian iconography, Christ Pantokrator refers to a specific depiction of Christ. Pantocrator or Pantokrator is a translation of one of many Names of God in Judaism...

above the lintel of the main door. In Romanesque and Gothic buildings, this is usually a sculptural group, and may entail a whole scene of the Last Judgement with details of souls being weighed and rewarded, or dragged down to Hell by demons. In those churches in which painted rather than sculptured decoration prevails, the Last Judgement is often located on the interior of the west end, rather than the interior.

Section references:Banister Fletcher, Wim Swaan, Larousse.

Nave and aisles

The main body of the building, making the longer arm of the cross, where worshippers congregate, is called the nave

Nave

. The term is from the Latin word for ship. 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

Hull (watercraft)

A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...

of a ship.

The nave is braced on either side by lower aisles, separated from the main space by a row of piers or columns. The aisles facilitate the movement of people, even when the nave is full of worshippers. They also strengthen the structure by buttressing the inner walls that carry the high roof, which in the case of many cathedrals and other large churches, is made of stone. Above the roof of the aisle are the clerestory

Clerestory

Clerestory is an architectural term that historically denoted an upper level of a Roman basilica or of the nave of a Romanesque or Gothic church, the walls of which rise above the rooflines of the lower aisles and are pierced with windows. In modern usage, clerestory refers to any high windows...

windows which light the nave.

In some large churches, particularly late Medieval churches, there are two aisles on either side of nave. Other churches have a single aisle and a row of chapels on either sde. In some churches, particularly in Germany, the aisles are almost as high as the nave, forming a "hall church". In this case, because there is no clerestory, the aisle windows are often very tall, to admit light to the nave.

Crossing and transept

The crossing is the point in a large church at which the transept intersects the nave. This point is often marked externally by a tower or dome and internally by the piers and arches that are required to bear the weight of such a structure. The interior of the dome or tower may be one of the major architectural features of the interior of the church. In a centrally planned church such as Hagia Sophia, and typical of many Orthodox churches, the major interior space of the building is roofed by the dome.

The transept is symbolic of the arms of the Cross, but also provide space for congregation and for additional chapels. Transept chapels are often dedicated to a particular saint, or to a particular aspect in the life and ministry of Christ, such as the Nativity

Nativity of Jesus

The Nativity of Jesus, or simply The Nativity, refers to the accounts of the birth of Jesus in two of the Canonical gospels and in various apocryphal texts....

or the Resurrection

Resurrection of Jesus

The Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus states that Jesus returned to bodily life on the third day following his death by crucifixion. It is a key element of Christian faith and theology and part of the Nicene Creed: "On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures"...

. In some English cathedrals there is often a second transept containing chapels, to facilitate the saying of the Holy Office by clergy each day.

Choir and presbytery

In a church in which part of the body of the church extends beyond the transept, then this extension is architecturally termed the "choir". This architectural form is common in Norman

Norman architecture

and Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

. The choir, where it exists, normally contains the choir stalls, and the "sanctuary" and the "cathedra" (bishop's throne). The architectural "choir" is sometimes termed the "quire" to differentiate.

In those English cathedrals with two transepts, there is a further area beyond the choir which is called the Presbytery

Presbytery (architecture)

The presbytery is the name for an area in a church building which is reserved for the clergy.In the oldest church it is separated by short walls, by small columns and pilasters in the Renaissance ones; it can also be raised, being reachable by a few steps, usually with railings....

. This is where the priests or monks could make their private devotions. Often there are many additional chapels located towards the eastern end of a cathedral or abbey church. The chief among these is the Lady Chapel

Lady chapel

A Lady chapel, also called Mary chapel or Marian chapel, is a traditional English term for a chapel inside a cathedral, basilica, or large church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary...

which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Altar

The altar in a church is a table on which is laid the Blessed Sacrament

Blessed Sacrament

The Blessed Sacrament, or the Body and Blood of Christ, is a devotional name used in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Catholic Churches, Old Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches, to refer to the Host after it has been consecrated in the sacrament of the Eucharist...

of bread and wine for consecration by a priest prior to use in the rite of Communion

Eucharist

The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

. The main altar in a church is located in a designated space called the "sanctuary" ("holy place"). The word has passed into modern English with an altered meaning because a criminal who could gain access to this area without capture was thereby given the sanctuary of the church. Many churches have an additional altar placed further forward in the church, as well as altars in chapels. The altar of a Catholic church may be made of marble. In most Protestant and Anglican churches altars are of wood, symbolic of the table of the Last Supper

Last Supper

The Last Supper is the final meal that, according to Christian belief, Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The Last Supper provides the scriptural basis for the Eucharist, also known as "communion" or "the Lord's Supper".The First Epistle to the Corinthians is...

rather than of a sacrificial altar.

The sanctuary is often separated from the body of the church by railings and screens, and, in the case of Orthodox churches, by an iconostasis

Iconostasis

In Eastern Christianity an iconostasis is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church. Iconostasis also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere within a church...

which forms a complete visual as well as physical barrier. The sanctuary is usually the most ornately decorated part of a church, creating a visual focus towards the altar. This might be done in several ways. There might be a carved or painted altarpiece

Altarpiece

An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...

, a large carved screen called a reredos, or a structure called a ciborium

Ciborium (architecture)

In ecclesiastical architecture, a ciborium is a canopy or covering supported by columns, freestanding in the sanctuary, that stands over and covers the altar in a basilica or other church. It may also be known by the more general term of baldachin, though ciborium is often considered more correct...

which form a canopy over the altar. In English churches that have a square eastern end, a very large stained glass window often fills the wall behind the altar.

Choir stalls and organ

The term "choir

Choir

A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

" is used in three distinct ways in relation to cathedrals. As well as the architectural use, it pertains to the choir of "choristers", often men and boys, that sing at the services. It is also the term used for that section of the church where the choir sits, and where choral services take place. In a cathedral or large church, there may be fixed seating in this area, called "choir stalls" which also provided seating for the cathedral clergy and some congregation. The choir stalls are often richly carved and decorated. The bishop's throne or cathedra
Cathedra
A cathedra or bishop's throne is the chair or throne of a bishop. It is a symbol of the bishop's teaching authority in the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, and has in some sense remained such in the Anglican Communion and in Lutheran churches...

is often located in this space. The choir may be separated from the nave by a highly decorated screen of wood or stone. The organ which provides music and accompanies the choir may be located on the screen, or may be in the gallery above the choir, or in a transept. Some churches have an organ loft at the west end of the church.

Font, lectern and pulpit

Towards the western end of the nave stands the font, or water basin at which the rite of Baptism

Baptism

In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...

is performed. It is placed towards the door because the Baptism signifies entry into the community of the church. Standing to the front of the nave is a lectern from which the Holy Scripture is read. In many churches this takes the form of an eagle which supports the book on its outstretched wings and is the symbol of John the Evangelist

John the Evangelist

Saint John the Evangelist is the conventional name for the author of the Gospel of John...

.
The third significant furnishing of the nave is the pulpit or rostrum from which the sermon

Sermon

is preached and the biblical readings are expounded. The pulpit

Pulpit

Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...

might be of marble or wood, and may be a simple structure or represent a highly elaborate carved sermon. It is often decorated with the winged figures of a man, a lion, a bull and an eagle, representing the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Decoration

The internal decorative features of a cathedral or great church might follow a carefully conceived scheme which might continue the theme begun on the west front. There are many examples which give evidence of this, and include the mosaic

Mosaic

Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...

vaults of Orthodox churches, the stained glass

Stained glass

The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

windows of Medieval churches and the sculptural schemes of Baroque churches. However, in many other cases, any unified scheme has been lost with the vagaries of the building's history.

Despite losses and changes of direction, the over-riding aim in the decoration of church interiors is to convey the message of the Gospels. To this end, many churches have, in their decorative schemes, elements of a Poor Man's Bible

Poor Man's Bible

, illustrating aspects of the Life of Christ and other related narratives, with the aim of educating the viewer. Among these representations are the Stations of the Cross
Stations of the Cross
Stations of the Cross refers to the depiction of the final hours of Jesus, and the devotion commemorating the Passion. The tradition as chapel devotion began with St...

and the Crucifix
Crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....

which was traditionally suspended from the chancel arch, or placed on a rood

Rood

A rood is a cross or crucifix, especially a large one in a church; a large sculpture or sometimes painting of the crucifixion of Jesus.Rood is an archaic word for pole, from Old English rōd "pole", specifically "cross", from Proto-Germanic *rodo, cognate to Old Saxon rōda, Old High German ruoda...

screen at the entrance to the quire. Other figurative representations include sculptures or pictures of saints and prophets, which are the common subject of the panel paintings on the iconostasis

Iconostasis

of Orthodox Churches.

The symbolism used in ancient churches is not always easy for modern people to read. Virtues and vices may be represented by small figures with particular attributes, or by animals that were thought to embody a particular quality. A common example is the pelican

Pelican

A pelican, derived from the Greek word πελεκυς pelekys is a large water bird with a large throat pouch, belonging to the bird family Pelecanidae....

which was thought to peck its breast to feed its young on the blood, thus representing the love of Christ for the Church.

The decorative scheme generally culminated at the altar, where there would be a painted altarpiece

Altarpiece

or sculptured reredos

Reredos

thumb|300px|right|An altar and reredos from [[St. Josaphat's Roman Catholic Church|St. Josaphat Catholic Church]] in [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]]. This would be called a [[retable]] in many other languages and countries....

, or it would be framed by a stained glass window, or an apsidal mosaic.

Early Christian

The period of architecture termed Early or Paleo-Christian lasted from the first Christian Church buildings of the early 4th century until the development of a distinctly Byzantine style which emerged in the reign of Justinian I

Justinian I

Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...

in the 6th century, rather than with the removal of the seat of the Roman Empire to Byzantium

Byzantium

Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...

by Constantine in 330 CE. Some of the earliest Christian churches were constructed in Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

where Christianity became the official religion in 301. The small aisless Basilica of the Holy Cross

Basilica of the Holy Cross

The Basilica of the Holy Cross is an early Armenian church in the large village of Aparan in the Aragatsotn Province of Armenia. It is thought to be dated from the end of the 4th century. The church is undated and was partly restored in 1877.- References :...

at Aparan is traditionally dated to the 4th century.

Large Early Christian churches generally took the form of aisled basilicas with an apse. Among the early larger churches in Rome the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore has retained much of its original internal arrangement, its vast basilical proportions, its simple apsidal end, its great colonnade

Colonnade

In classical architecture, a colonnade denotes a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building....

supporting a straight cornice

Cornice

Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...

rather than arches and some very early mosaic

Mosaic

decoration. Santa Sabina

Santa Sabina

The Basilica of Saint Sabina at the Aventine is a titular minor basilica and mother church of the Roman Catholic Dominican order in Rome, Italy. Santa Sabina lies high on the Aventine Hill, beside the Tiber, close to the headquarters of theKnights of Malta....

, also in Rome, exemplifies the simplicity of architectural decoration that characterized many of the early Christian basilicas. Other important churches of this period are the two ancient circular churches of Rome, The Basilica of Santa Costanza

Santa Costanza

and San Stefano Rotondo. These churches are marked by their formal application of the Roman architectural orders in their columns, with Ionic

Ionic order

The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...

capitals supporting the lintel at Santa Maria Maggiore, Corinthian capitals at Santa Sabina and Santa Costanza, and all three orders at San Stefano. At Santa Costanza the thick brick walls of the central tambour are supported on slim elegant columns that are paired to give extra strength, each pair supporting a small section of cornice from which the arches spring.

A number of Rome's churches have retained Early Christian mosaics. Those at Santa Costanza are similar to mosaics and painted decoration found in public and domestic interiors, being largely geometric or floral, but close examination reveals much Christian symbolism in the choice of motives. One of the most extensive decorative shemes from the period to have remained at least partially intact is that at Santa Maria Maggiore, where the proscenium of apse is decoration with stories of the Infancy of Jesus drawn from the Gospel of Matthew

Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...

.

Where churches of Early Christian foundation remain, they are mostly considerably altered, are badly deteriorated and no longer viable, or are roofless ruins, a state which almost overtook San Stefano, prior to a renovation in the 15th century. The 4th century Church of the Nativity

Church of the Nativity

in Bethlehem

Bethlehem

Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...

was rebuilt by Justinian I after a fire in the 6th century, but appears to have retained much of its original form, including its massive Roman colonnades. The Constantinian Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection by Eastern Christians, is a church within the walled Old City of Jerusalem. It is a few steps away from the Muristan....

, on the other hand, was demolished under the order of the Muslim ruler in 1009 so that what stands today is a total reconstruction.

The Euphrasian Basilica

Euphrasian Basilica

The Euphrasian Basilica is a basilica in Poreč, Croatia. The episcopal complex, including, apart the basilica itself, a sacristy, a baptistery and the bell tower of the nearby archbishop's palace, is one of the best examples of early Byzantine architecture in the Mediterranean region.The...

in Poreč, Croatia, was founded in 360 on the site of a house church and retaining part of its Roman pavement. Although renovated and decorated in the late 6th century, the church has retained Early Christian features, including the atrium. Several Early Christian churches exist in Syria and Armenia, mostly in a ruined state. These show Roman rather than Byzantine architectural features, but have a regional character distinct from those of Rome.

Byzantine

Ravenna

Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and the second largest comune in Italy by land area, although, at , it is little more than half the size of the largest comune, Rome...

, on the eastern coast of Italy, is home to several vast churches of basilica plan dating from the age of the Emperor Justinian (6th century CE). San Apollinare Nuovo is in plan similar to Santa Maria Maggiore, but the details of the carvings are no longer in the classical Roman style. The capitals are like fat lacy stone cushions. Many of the mosaic

Mosaic

s are intact.

In the same town stands the uniquely-structured centrally-planned and domed church of San Vitale

Basilica of San Vitale

, of the same date. Its main internal space is 25 m across. The central dome is surrounded by eight apsidal semi-dome

Semi-dome

A semi-dome, also called a "half-dome", is the term in architecture for half a dome , used to cover a semi-circular area. Similar structures occur in nature.-Architecture:...

s like the petals of a flower. There is a complex arrangement of curving arcades on several levels which gives a spatial effect only equalled by the Baroque church of Santa Maria della Salute built a thousand years later a few miles north in Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

. San Vitale

Basilica of San Vitale

was to be imitated in the 9th century in a simplified form by Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...

at Aachen

Aachen

Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...

, Germany.

In Venice stands one of the world's best known Byzantine-style churches, decorated over many centuries but maintaining its centrally-planned Byzantine form, San Marco's. It is called St Mark's Basilica

St Mark's Basilica

, not because it is of basilical shape, but because it has been awarded that title. It has a Greek Cross plan, a large dome being surrounded by four somewhat smaller ones. Its decoration, both inside and out, is typical of the Byzantine period in its lavish use of mosaic

Mosaic

s and polychrome

Polychrome

Polychrome is one of the terms used to describe the use of multiple colors in one entity. It has also been defined as "The practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." Polychromatic light is composed of a number of different wavelengths...

marble

Marble

Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

veneer

Masonry Veneer

Masonry veneer walls consist of a single non-structural external layer of masonry work, typically brick, backed by an air space. The innermost element is usually structural, and may consist of wood or metal framing or masonry...

Romanesque

After the decline of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

, the building of large churches in Western Europe gradually gained momentum with the spread of organised monasticism under the rule of Saint Benedict

Benedict of Nursia

Saint Benedict of Nursia is a Christian saint, honored by the Roman Catholic Church as the patron saint of Europe and students.Benedict founded twelve communities for monks at Subiaco, about to the east of Rome, before moving to Monte Cassino in the mountains of southern Italy. There is no...

and others. A huge monastery at Cluny

Cluny

Cluny or Clungy is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France. It is 20 km northwest of Mâcon.The town grew up around the Benedictine Cluny Abbey, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in 910...

, only a fraction of which still exists, was built using a simplified Roman style, stout columns, thick walls, small window openings and semi-circular arches. The style spread with monasticism

Monasticism

Monasticism is a religious way of life characterized by the practice of renouncing worldly pursuits to fully devote one's self to spiritual work...

throughout Europe. The technique of building high vaults in masonry was revived. A treatment of decoration evolved that had elements drawn from local Pre-Christian traditions and incorporated zig-zags, spiral

Spiral

In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a central point, getting progressively farther away as it revolves around the point.-Spiral or helix:...

s and fierce animal heads. The typical wall decorations were painted mural

Mural

A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...

s.
The Romanesque building techniques spread to England at about the time of the Norman conquest.

Representative of the period are Abbaye aux Hommes (the Abbey of the Men) in Caen

Caen

Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....

, France; Worms Cathedral

Worms Cathedral

Cathedral of St Peter is a church in Worms, southern Germany. It was the seat of the Catholic Prince-Bishopric of Worms until its extinction in 1800.It is a basilica with four round towers, two large domes, and a choir at each end...

in Germany, the Cathedral of Pisa

Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...

with its famous leaning campanile (bell tower), Modena Cathedral and the Parma Cathedral

Cathedral of Parma

Parma Cathedral is a cathedral church in Parma, Emilia-Romagna . It is an important Italian Romanesque cathedral: the dome, in particular, is decorated by a highly influential illusionistic fresco by Renaissance painter Antonio da Correggio....

in Italy, and Durham Cathedral

Durham Cathedral

The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham is a cathedral in the city of Durham, England, the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Durham. The Bishopric dates from 995, with the present cathedral being founded in AD 1093...

and Peterborough Cathedral

Peterborough Cathedral

Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – also known as Saint Peter's Cathedral in the United Kingdom – is the seat of the Bishop of Peterborough, dedicated to Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Andrew, whose statues look down from the...

in England.

Gothic

By the mid 12th century many large cathedrals and abbey churches had been constructed and the engineering

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

skills required to build high arches, stone vaults, tall towers and the like, were well established. The style evolved to one that was less heavy, had larger windows, lighter-weight vaulting supported on stone ribs and above all, the pointed arch which is the defining characteristic of the style now known as Gothic. With thinner walls, larger windows and high pointed arched vaults, the distinctive flying buttresses developed as a means of support. The huge windows were ornamented with stone tracery and filled with stained glass

Stained glass

illustrating stories from the Bible

Bible

and the lives of the Saints.

Buildings representative of this period include Notre Dame

Notre Dame de Paris

, Paris; Chartres Cathedral, Reims Cathedral

Reims Cathedral

Notre-Dame de Reims is the Roman Catholic cathedral of Reims, where the kings of France were once crowned. It replaces an older church, destroyed by a fire in 1211, which was built on the site of the basilica where Clovis was baptized by Saint Remi, bishop of Reims, in AD 496. That original...

, Rouen Cathedral

Rouen Cathedral

Rouen Cathedral is a Roman Catholic Gothic cathedral in Rouen, in northwestern France. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Rouen and Normandy.-History:...

, Strasbourg Cathedral

Strasbourg Cathedral

Strasbourg Cathedral or the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Strasbourg, France. Although considerable parts of it are still in Romanesque architecture, it is widely consideredSusan Bernstein: , The Johns Hopkins University Press to be among the finest...

in France, Antwerp Cathedral in Belgium, Cologne Cathedral

Cologne Cathedral

in Germany, St Stephen's Cathedral

Stephansdom

St. Stephen's Cathedral is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, OP...

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

in Austria, Florence Cathedral, Siena Cathedral, Milan Cathedral in Italy, Burgos Cathedral

Burgos Cathedral

The Burgos Cathedral is a Gothic-style Roman Catholic cathedral in Burgos, Spain. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and is famous for its vast size and unique architecture. Its construction began in 1221, and was in use nine years later, although work continued on and off for two hundred years...

, Toledo Cathedral and Leon Cathedral

León Cathedral

Santa María de León Cathedral, also called The House of Light or the Pulchra Leonina is situated in the city of León in north-western Spain. It was built on the site of previous Roman baths of the 2nd century which, 800 years later, king Ordoño II converted into a palace.The León Cathedral,...

in Spain, Guarda Cathedral in Portugal, Salisbury Cathedral

Salisbury Cathedral

, Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site....

and Lincoln Cathedral

Lincoln Cathedral

in England.

Renaissance

In the early 15th century a competition was held in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

for a plan to roof the central crossing of the huge, unfinished Gothic Cathedral. It was won by the artist Brunelleschi

Filippo Brunelleschi

Filippo Brunelleschi was one of the foremost architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance. He is perhaps most famous for inventing linear perspective and designing the dome of the Florence Cathedral, but his accomplishments also included bronze artwork, architecture , mathematics,...

who, inspired by domes that he had seen on his travels, such as that of San Vitale

Basilica of San Vitale

in Ravenna and the enormous dome of the Roman period which roofed the Pantheon

Pantheon, Rome

, he designed a huge dome

Dome

A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....

which is regarded as the first building of the Renaissance period. Its style, visually however, is ribbed and pointed and purely Gothic. It was Renaissance (a rebirth) in its audacity and the fact that it looked back to Roman structural techniques.
Brunelleschi

Filippo Brunelleschi

, and others like him, developed a passion for the highly refined style of Roman architecture

Roman architecture

Ancient Roman architecture adopted certain aspects of Ancient Greek architecture, creating a new architectural style. The Romans were indebted to their Etruscan neighbors and forefathers who supplied them with a wealth of knowledge essential for future architectural solutions, such as hydraulics...

, in which the forms and decorations followed rules of placement and proportion that had long been neglected. They sought to rediscover and apply these rules. It was a time of architectural theorising and experimentation. Brunelleschi built two large churches in Florence demonstrating how the new style could be applied, San Lorenzo

Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze

The Basilica di San Lorenzo is one of the largest churches of Florence, Italy, situated at the centre of the city’s main market district, and the burial place of all the principal members of the Medici family from Cosimo il Vecchio to Cosimo III...

's and Santo Spirito. They are essays in the Classical, with rows of cylindrical columns, Corinthian capitals, entablatures, semi-circular arches and apsidal chapels.

The greatest cathedral building of the age was the rebuilding of St Peter's Basilica in Rome, the combined work of the architects Bramante, Raphael

Raphael

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...

, Sangallo

Giuliano da Sangallo

Giuliano da Sangallo was an Italian sculptor, architect and military engineer active during the Italian Renaissance.He was born in Florence. His father Francesco Giamberti was a woodworker and architect, much employed by Cosimo de Medici, and his brother Antonio da Sangallo the Elder and nephew...

, Maderno

Carlo Maderno

Carlo Maderno was a Swiss-Italian architect, born in Ticino, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His façades of Santa Susanna, St. Peter's Basilica and Sant'Andrea della Valle were of key importance in the evolution of the Italian Baroque...

and surmounted by Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...

's glorious dome, taller but just one foot narrower than the one that Brunelleschi had built a hundred years earlier in Florence

Florence

. The dome is both an external and an internal focus. The chancel and transept arms are identical in shape, thus recalling the Greek Cross plan of Byzantine churches. The nave was, in fact, an addition.

Pope Julius II

Pope Julius II

Pope Julius II , nicknamed "The Fearsome Pope" and "The Warrior Pope" , born Giuliano della Rovere, was Pope from 1503 to 1513...

could command the greatest artists of his day as designers. (The role of architect had not yet become a separate one from painter, sculptor or builder.) The product of these many minds is a massive, glorious and unified whole.

Baroque

By the time that St Peter's was completed, a style of architecture was developed by architects who knew all the rules that had been so carefully recovered, and chose to break them. The effect was a dynamic style of architecture in which the forms seem to take on life of their own, moving, swaying and undulating. The name baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

means 'mis-shapen pearl'.

There are many large churches abbeys and basilicas built in this style, but few cathedrals in Western Europe, the most notable exception being St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...

in London. St Paul's is an unusual cathedral in that it was designed by a single individual and completed in a short time. The architect was Sir Christopher Wren and the building replaced the ancient cathedral which burnt down in the Great Fire of 1666. It is in the Baroque style, but it is a very controlled and English sort of Baroque in which Wren creates surprising and dramatic spatial effects, particularly in his use of the dome, which, like Brunelleschi

Filippo Brunelleschi

's dome in Florence, spans not only the nave but also the aisles, opening the whole centre of the church into a vast light space.

In Russia, for the most part, the Baroque style was overlaid as architectonic features on the essentially Byzantine forms used for church construction. Many churches were built in this style, notably the Cathedral of the Dormition

Assumption Cathedral in Smolensk

The Cathedral Church of the Assumption, dominating the city of Smolensk from the lofty Cathedral Hill, has been the principal church of the Smolensk bishopric for 800 years.- Monomakh Cathedral :...

at Smolensk

Smolensk

Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...

and the Cathedral of the Presentation at Solvychegodsk

Solvychegodsk

Solvychegodsk is a town in the southern part of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, located on the right-hand bank of the Vychegda River northeast of Kotlas. Administratively, it is a part of Kotlassky District. Municipally, it is incorporated as Solvychegodskoye Urban Settlement of Kotlassky Municipal...

. In the design of many churches the Byzantine arrangement of tented roof or onion dome is replaced with a larger dome, usually on a tall, often polygonal, tambour.

Many European cathedrals have baroque features, high altars, facades and chapels. The facades of Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James...

, Jaén Cathedral and Valladolid Cathedral in Spain was rebuilt at this time. The Baroque style was carried by the Spanish and Portuguese to South and Central America, to the Philippines and to Goa in India where it was to become the prominent style of building for churches large and small. Both in the Americas and the Philippines, large baroque churches often have a proportionally very wide facade which seems stretched between the towers. The intensely ornate decoration both in Spain and the Americas is called Churrigueresque

Churrigueresque

Churrigueresque refers to a Spanish Baroque style of elaborate sculptural architectural ornament which emerged as a manner of stucco decoration in Spain in the late 17th century and was used up to about 1750, marked by extreme, expressive and florid decorative detailing, normally found above the...

Rococo

The Rococo style is a late evolution of Baroque architecture, first apparent in French domestic architecture and design. It is distinguished by the asymmetry found within its decoration, generally taking the form of ornate sculptured cartouches or borders. These decorations are loosely based on organic objects, particularly seashells and plant growth, but also on other natural forms that have an apparent "organised chaos" such as waves of clouds. The churches that are thus decorated may have strongly Baroque architectural form but a general lightness and delicacy of appearance, sometimes described as "playfulness". A number of pilgrimage churches in Bavaria, Germany, are of this style, most notably the Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers

Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers

The Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers is a church located near the town of Bad Staffelstein near Bamberg, in Bavaria, southern Germany. The late Baroque-Rococo basilica, designed by Balthasar Neumann, was constructed between 1743 and 1772...

(Vierzehnheiligen) near Bamberg which combines a relatively staid exterior with a dynamic internal plan and an exquisitely orchestrated decorative scheme of painted ceiling and figurative sculpture, all set in a diverse array of gilded Rococo cartouche. Externally, the facade has a rippling surface, and rises with increasing ornateness to fanciful cupolas that are a hallmark of the churches of Bavaria and much of central and Eastern Europe.

Perhaps the most remarkable large-scale example of Rococo church building was the Frauenkirche at Dresden, recently rebuilt after its almost total destruction in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The entire structures embodies a dynamic, surging motion which combines with a delicacy of architectural detail that is typical of the Rococo style. This church is dominated by its bell-shaped cupola which imitates in form those to be found on countless church towers in the region, but recreated here not in wood sheathed with metal, but as a mighty masonry dome.

Revivals

The 18th and 19th centuries were a time of expansion and colonisation

Colonisation

Colonization occurs whenever any one or more species populate an area. The term, which is derived from the Latin colere, "to inhabit, cultivate, frequent, practice, tend, guard, respect", originally related to humans. However, 19th century biogeographers dominated the term to describe the...

by Western Europeans. It was also a time of much Christian revival and in England, a considerable growth in the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

. There was also much industrialisation and the growth of towns. New churches and cathedrals were needed. The Medieval styles, and particularly Gothic, were seen as the most suitable for the building of new cathedrals, both in Europe and in the colonies.

Cathedrals in the Gothic Revival style

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

include Liverpool Anglican Cathedral

Liverpool Cathedral

Liverpool Cathedral is the Church of England cathedral of the Diocese of Liverpool, built on St James's Mount in Liverpool and is the seat of the Bishop of Liverpool. Its official name is the Cathedral Church of Christ in Liverpool but it is dedicated to Christ and the Blessed Virgin...

in England, the New Cathedral, Linz

New Cathedral, Linz

The building of the New Cathedral , also known as the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Linz was begun in 1855 by Bishop Franz Joseph Rudigier. The first stone was laid in 1862, and in 1924 Bishop Johannes Maria Gföllner consecrated the finished building as the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary...

in Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine

Cathedral of Saint John the Divine

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, officially the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in the City and Diocese of New York, is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York...

in New York and St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne

St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne

St Patrick's Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, and seat of its archbishop, currently Denis J. Hart. The building is known internationally as a leading example of the Gothic Revival style of architecture.In 1974 Pope Paul VI...

in Australia.

Not all of the cathedrals that are in a revivalist style are Gothic. Westminster Cathedral

Westminster Cathedral

Westminster Cathedral in London is the mother church of the Catholic community in England and Wales and the Metropolitan Church and Cathedral of the Archbishop of Westminster...

, the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster

Archbishop of Westminster

The Archbishop of Westminster heads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster, in England. The incumbent is the Metropolitan of the Province of Westminster and, as a matter of custom, is elected President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, and therefore de facto spokesman...

, is an eclectic design of predominantly Byzantine style with polychrome

Polychrome

walls, domes and a very tall Italian-style campanile

Campanile

Campanile is an Italian word meaning "bell tower" . The term applies to bell towers which are either part of a larger building or free-standing, although in American English, the latter meaning has become prevalent.The most famous campanile is probably the Leaning Tower of Pisa...

. Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral

Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral

The Cathedral-Basilica of Mary, Queen of the World in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, is the seat of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Montreal. It is the third largest church in Quebec after St. Joseph's Oratory and the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré east of Quebec City...

in Canada is a Renaissance revival

Neo-Renaissance

Renaissance Revival is an all-encompassing designation that covers many 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Grecian nor Gothic but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of classicizing Italian modes...

building based on St Peter's, Rome.

Modern

In the 20th century building in the Medieval style continued, but in a stripped-down, cleanly functional form, often in brick. A fine example is Guildford Cathedral

Guildford Cathedral

The Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit, Guildford is the Anglican cathedral at Guildford, Surrey, England.-Construction:Guildford was made a diocese in its own right in 1927, and work on its new cathedral, designed by Sir Edward Maufe, began nine years later, with the foundation stone being laid...

in England. Another is Armidale

Armidale, New South Wales

Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale Dumaresq Shire had a population of 19,485 people according to the 2006 census. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region...

Anglican Cathedral in Australia.

After World War II traditionalist ideas were abandoned for the rebuilding of the bombed cathedral in Coventry. The old cathedral was actually a large parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

that had been elevated to cathedral status. Its glorious spire fortunately escaped severe damage. The new Coventry Cathedral

Coventry Cathedral

Coventry Cathedral, also known as St Michael's Cathedral, is the seat of the Bishop of Coventry and the Diocese of Coventry, in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The current bishop is the Right Revd Christopher Cocksworth....

, of alternating slabs of masonry and stained glass attempts to capture symbolically the sense of an old cathedral church, without attempting to reproduce it. Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral

The Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Christ the King is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. The cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Liverpool and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool. The Metropolitan Cathedral is one of two cathedrals in the city...

is the 20th century's answer to the centrally-planned church, a vast circular structure with the sanctuary at the centre.

Post Modern

As with other Postmodern movements, the Postmodern Movement in Architecture

Postmodern architecture

Postmodern architecture began as an international style the first examples of which are generally cited as being from the 1950s, but did not become a movement until the late 1970s and continues to influence present-day architecture...

formed in reaction to the ideals of modernism

Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

as a response to the perceived blandness, hostility, and Utopianism of the Modern movement. While rare in designs of Church architecture

Church architecture

, there are nonetheless some notable examples as architects have begun to recover and renew historical styles and "cultural memory" of Christian architecture. Notable practitioners include Dr. Steven Schloeder, Duncan Stroik, and Thomas Gordon Smith.

The functional

Functionalism (architecture)

Functionalism, in architecture, is the principle that architects should design a building based on the purpose of that building. This statement is less self-evident than it first appears, and is a matter of confusion and controversy within the profession, particularly in regard to modern...

and formalized shapes and spaces of the modernist

Modernism

movement are replaced by unapologetically diverse aesthetics

Aesthetics

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...

: styles collide, form is adopted for its own sake, and new ways of viewing familiar styles and space abound. Perhaps most obviously, architects rediscovered the expressive and symbolic value of architectural elements and forms that had evolved through centuries of building—often maintaining meaning in literature, poetry and art—but which had been abandoned by the modern movement.

List of cathedrals
Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
Poor Man's Bible
Poor Man's Bible
The term Poor Man's Bible has come into use in modern times to describe works of art within churches and cathedrals which either individually or collectively have been created to illustrate the teachings of the Bible for a largely illiterate population. These artworks may take the form of carvings,...
Architecture of the medieval cathedrals of England
Architecture of the medieval cathedrals of England
The medieval cathedrals of England, dating from between approximately 1040 and 1540, are a group of twenty-six buildings which together constitute a major aspect of the country’s artistic heritage and are among the most significant material symbols of Christianity. Though diversified in style, they...
Gothicmed
Gothicmed
Gothicmed is a European Union project carried out within the Culture 2000 programme and headed by the Ministry of Culture of the regional government of Valencia , Spain...

Architectural styles

Early Christian art and architecture
Early Christian art and architecture
Early Christian art and architecture is the art produced by Christians or under Christian patronage from about the year 100 to about the year 500. Prior to 100 there is no surviving art that can be called Christian with absolute certainty...
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 moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to...
Romanesque Architecture
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
Gothic Architecture
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...
Baroque Architecture
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
Victorian Architecture
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

Architectural features

Cathedral Architecture - Development of the Eastern End in England and France
Cathedral Architecture - Development of the Eastern End in England and France
The larger medieval churches of France and England, the cathedrals and abbeys, have much in common architecturally, an east/west orientation, an external emphasis on the west front and its doors, long arcaded interiors, high vaulted roofs and windows filled with stained glass...
Cathedral diagram
Cathedral diagram
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. Light double lines in perimeter walls indicate glazed windows. Dashed lines show the ribs of the vaulting overhead...
Triforium
Triforium
A triforium is a shallow arched gallery within the thickness of inner wall, which stands above the nave of a church or cathedral. It may occur at the level of the clerestory windows, or it may be located as a separate level below the clerestory. It may itself have an outer wall of glass rather than...
Clerestory
Clerestory
Clerestory is an architectural term that historically denoted an upper level of a Roman basilica or of the nave of a Romanesque or Gothic church, the walls of which rise above the rooflines of the lower aisles and are pierced with windows. In modern usage, clerestory refers to any high windows...
Vault
Vault (architecture)
A Vault is an architectural term for an arched form used to provide a space with a ceiling or roof. The parts of a vault exert lateral thrust that require a counter resistance. When vaults are built underground, the ground gives all the resistance required...
Rose window
Rose window
A Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery...

Decorative features

Stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
- British and Irish stained glass (1811–1918)
Gargoyle
Gargoyle
In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque, usually made of granite, with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between...
Grotesque
Grotesque
The word grotesque comes from the same Latin root as "Grotto", meaning a small cave or hollow. The original meaning was restricted to an extravagant style of Ancient Roman decorative art rediscovered and then copied in Rome at the end of the 15th century...
Labours of the Months
Labours of the Months
The term Labours of the Months refers to cycles in Medieval and early Renaissance art depicting in twelve scenes the rural activities that commonly took place in the months of the year...
Tree of Jesse
Tree of Jesse
The Tree of Jesse is a depiction in art of the Ancestors of Christ, shown in a tree which rises from Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of King David; the original use of the family tree as a schematic representation of a genealogy...

Romanesque cathedrals

Speyer Cathedral
Speyer Cathedral
The Speyer Cathedral, officially the Imperial Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption and St Stephen, in Latin: Domus sanctae Mariae Spirae in Speyer, Germany, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Speyer and is suffragan to the Archdiocese of Bamberg. The cathedral, which is dedicated to St...

- http://www.speyer.de/de/tourist/sehenswert/dom
Pisa Cathedral and Leaning Tower of Pisa
Leaning Tower of Pisa
The Leaning Tower of Pisa or simply the Tower of Pisa is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa...

- http://torre.duomo.pisa.it/
Durham Cathedral
Durham Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham is a cathedral in the city of Durham, England, the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Durham. The Bishopric dates from 995, with the present cathedral being founded in AD 1093...

- http://www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/
Romanesque Cathedrals of Puglia (Southern Italy)

Early Gothic Cathedrals from late 12th to mid 13th centuries

Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site....

- http://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre Dame de Paris , also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra of...

- http://www.cathedraledeparis.com/
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...

- http://www.westminster-abbey.org/
Chartres Cathedral - http://www.chartres-csm.org/us.html
Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral is a historic Anglican cathedral in Lincoln in England and seat of the Bishop of Lincoln in the Church of England. It was reputedly the tallest building in the world for 249 years . The central spire collapsed in 1549 and was not rebuilt...

- http://www.lincolncathedral.com/
St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin
St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin
Saint Patrick's Cathedral , or more formally, the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Patrick is a cathedral of the Church of Ireland in Dublin, Ireland which was founded in 1191. The Church has designated it as The National Cathedral of Ireland...

- http://www.stpatrickscathedral.ie/

Gothic Cathedrals from mid 13th to 16th centuries

Florence Cathedral - http://www.duomofirenze.it/
St. Michael and Gudula Cathedral
St. Michael and Gudula Cathedral
The St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church at the Treurenberg hill in Brussels, Belgium. In French, it is called Cathédrale Saints-Michel-et-Gudule and in Dutch Sint-Michiels- en Sint-Goedelekathedraal, usually shortened to "Sint-Goedele".In 1047, Lambert II, Count of...

, Brussels - http://www.cathedralestmichel.be/eng/
St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna - http://www.stephansdom.at/data
Cologne Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in Cologne, Germany. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and is a World Heritage Site...

- http://www.koelner-dom.de/
St. Giles' Cathedral
St. Giles' Cathedral
St Giles' Cathedral, more properly termed the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is the principal place of worship of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh. Its distinctive crown steeple is a prominent feature of the city skyline, at about a third of the way down the Royal Mile which runs from the Castle to...

Edinburgh - http://www.stgilescathedral.org.uk/
Toledo Cathedral - http://www.architoledo.org/cathedral/mosaico.htm
Amiens Cathedral
Amiens Cathedral
The Cathedral of Our Lady of Amiens , or simply Amiens Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral and seat of the Bishop of Amiens...

- http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/Amiens.html
Worcester Cathedral
Worcester Cathedral
Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Worcester, England; situated on a bank overlooking the River Severn. It is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Worcester. Its official name is The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Mary the Virgin of Worcester...

- http://www.paradoxplace.com/Photo%20Pages/UK/Britain_Centre/Worcester_Cathedral/Worcester_Cathedral.htm

19th century

Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral in London is the mother church of the Catholic community in England and Wales and the Metropolitan Church and Cathedral of the Archbishop of Westminster...

- http://www.westminstercathedral.org.uk/
Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, officially the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in the City and Diocese of New York, is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York...

New York - http://www.stjohndivine.org/

20th century

Liverpool Cathedral
Liverpool Cathedral
Liverpool Cathedral is the Church of England cathedral of the Diocese of Liverpool, built on St James's Mount in Liverpool and is the seat of the Bishop of Liverpool. Its official name is the Cathedral Church of Christ in Liverpool but it is dedicated to Christ and the Blessed Virgin...
Guildford Cathedral
Guildford Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit, Guildford is the Anglican cathedral at Guildford, Surrey, England.-Construction:Guildford was made a diocese in its own right in 1927, and work on its new cathedral, designed by Sir Edward Maufe, began nine years later, with the foundation stone being laid...

- http://www.guildford-cathedral.org/
Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral
Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral
The Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Christ the King is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. The cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Liverpool and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool. The Metropolitan Cathedral is one of two cathedrals in the city...

- http://www.liverpoolmetrocathedral.org.uk/
Washington National Cathedral
Washington National Cathedral
The Washington National Cathedral, officially named the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church located in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. Of neogothic design, it is the sixth-largest cathedral in the world, the second-largest in...

- http://www.cathedral.org/cathedral/index.shtml

Function

Cathedral

Basilica

Abbey

Origins and development of the church building

From house church to church

Atrium

Basilica

Bema

Mausoleum

Latin Cross and Greek Cross

Architectural forms common to many cathedrals and great churches

Axis

Nave

Transept

Vertical emphasis

Facade

East end

External Decoration

Nave and aisles

Crossing and transept

Choir and presbytery

Altar

Choir stalls and organ

Font, lectern and pulpit

Decoration

Early Christian

Byzantine

Romanesque

Gothic

Renaissance

Baroque

Rococo

Revivals

Modern

Post Modern

See also

Architectural styles

Architectural features

Decorative features

Romanesque cathedrals

Early Gothic Cathedrals from late 12th to mid 13th centuries

Gothic Cathedrals from mid 13th to 16th centuries

19th century

20th century

Other links