Cella

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Cella

Naos redirects here. For other meanings, see naos (disambiguation)
Naos (disambiguation)

Naos can mean*Another name for the star Zeta Puppis.*In classical architecture it refers to the Cella, i.e. the inner chamber of a temple which houses a cult figure....
.

A cella (from Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
for small chamber) or naos (from the Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
for temple), is the inner chamber of a temple

Temple

A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A ??templum?? constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur....
in classical architecture

Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
, or a shop facing the street in domestic Roman architecture (see domus

Domus

A domus was the form of house that wealthy and some middle class families owned in ancient Rome and could be found in almost all the major cities of the Roman Empire....
).

ncient Greek

Greek temple

Greek temples were structures built to house deity statues within Greek sanctuaries in Greek paganism. The temples themselves did usually not directly serve a cult purpose, since the sacrifices and rituals dedicated to the respective deity took place outside them....
and Roman temple

Roman temple

In the ancient religion of Roman paganism, practitioners often performed their worship at a temple....
s the cella is a room at the centre of the building, usually containing a cult image

Cult image

In the practice of religion, a cult image is a man-made object that is venerated for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents....
or statue (execrated by Early Christians as an "idol

Idolatry

Idolatry is usually defined as worship of any cult image, idea, or Object , as opposed to the worship of a monotheistic God. It is considered a major sin in the Abrahamic religions whereas in religions where such activity is not considered as sin, the term "idolatry" itself is absent....
") representing the particular deity venerated in the temple.

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Encyclopedia

A cella (from Latin

Latin

Ancient Greek

Temple

Architecture

Domus

A domus was the form of house that wealthy and some middle class families owned in ancient Rome and could be found in almost all the major cities of the Roman Empire....
).

Greek and Roman temples

In Ancient Greek

Greek temple

Roman temple

In the ancient religion of Roman paganism, practitioners often performed their worship at a temple....
s the cella is a room at the centre of the building, usually containing a cult image

Cult image

Idolatry

Plinth

A plinth is the base of a cabinet in cabinet making.In architecture, a plinth is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or structure rests....
to receive votive offerings such as votive statues, precious and semi-precious stones, helmet

Helmet

A helmet is a form of protective gear worn on the head to protect it from injuries, a variation of the hat. The oldest use of helmets was by Ancient Greek soldiers, who wore thick leather or bronze helmets to protect the head from sword blows and arrows....
s, spear

Spear

A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a sharpened head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be of another material fastened to the shaft, such as obsidian, iron or bronze....
and arrow

Arrow

An arrow is a pointed projectile that is shot with a bow . It predates recorded history and is common to most cultures....
heads, and sword

Sword

A sword is a long, edged piece of metal, used as a cutting, thrusting, and clubbing weapon in many civilizations throughout the world. The word sword comes from the Old English language wikt:sweord, cognate to Old High German swert, Middle Dutch swaert, Old Norse sver? Old Frisian and Old Saxon swerd and Dutch langua...
s. The accumulated offerings made Greek and Roman temples virtual treasuries

Treasury

A treasury is any place where the currency or items of high monetary value are kept. The term was first used in Classical antiquity times to describe the votive buildings erected to house Sacrifice, such as the Siphnian Treasury in Delphi or many similar buildings erected in Olympia, Greece by competing city-states to impress others during t...
, and many of them were indeed used as treasuries during antiquity

Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome....
.

The cella is typically a simple, windowless, rectangular room with a door or open entrance at the front behind a colonnade

Colonnade

In classical architecture, a colonnade denotes a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, as in the famous elliptically curving colonnades that Bernini added to the fa?ade of The apostel Peter's Basilica in Rome, which embrace and define the Piazza....
d portico

Portico

Colonnade

Nave

In Romanesque architecture and Gothic architecture Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and Church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar....
flanked by two aisle

Aisle

An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on either side or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other. Aisles can be seen in certain types of buildings such as Church , synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments and legislatures, courtrooms, theatre s, and in certain types of passenger vehicles....
s. A cella may also contain an adyton
Adyton

The adyton or adytum was a restricted area within the cella of a Greek temple or Roman temple. Its name meant "inaccessible" or "do not enter"....
, an inner area restricted to access by the priests—in religions that had a consecrated priesthood—or by the temple guard

With very few exceptions Greek buildings were of a peripteral design that placed the cella in the center of the plan, such as the Parthenon

Parthenon

The Parthenon is a Greek temple of the Greek gods Athena, built in the 5th century BC on the Acropolis of Athens. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered to be the culmination of the development of the Doric order....
and the Temple of Apollo at Paestum

Paestum

Paestum is the classical Roman name of a major Graeco-Roman city in the Campania region of Italy. It is located in the north of Cilento, near the coast about 85 km SE of Naples in the province of Salerno, and belongs to the commune of Capaccio....
. The Romans favoured pseudoperipteral

Pseudoperipteral

In architecture, a pseudoperipteral building is one with free standing columns in the front , but the columns along the sides are engaged column in the peripheral walls of the building....
buildings with a portico

Portico

A portico is a porch that is leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls....
offsetting the cella to the rear. The pseudoperipteral plan uses engaged
Engaged column

In architecture, an engaged column is a column embedded in a wall and partly projecting from the surface of the wall, sometimes defined as semi or three-quarter detached....
columns embedded along the side and rear walls of the cella. The Temple of Venus and Roma

Temple of Venus and Roma

The Temple of Venus and Roma was the largest known Roman temple in Ancient Rome. Located at the far east side of the Forum Romanum near the Colosseum, it was dedicated to the goddesses Venus #Epithets and Roma Aeterna ....
built by Hadrian

Hadrian

Publius Aelius Hadrianus , as emperor Imperator Caesar Divi Traiani filius Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, and Divus Hadrianus after his apotheosis, known as Hadrian in English language, was Roman Emperor of Roman Empire from AD 117 to 138, as well as a Stoicism and Epicureanism philosopher....
in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
had two cellae arranged back-to-back enclosed by a single outer peristyle

Peristyle

In Architecture of ancient Greece and Roman architecture a peristyle is a columned porch or open colonnade in a building that surrounds a court that may contain an internal garden....
.

Etruscan temples

According to Vitruvius

Vitruvius

File:Vitruvius.jpgMarcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Ancient Rome writer, architect and engineer , active in the 1st century BC. By his own description Vitruvius served as a Ballista , the third class of arms in the military offices....
(), the Etruscan

Etruscan civilization

Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy and Corsica whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci....
type of temples (as, for example, at Portonaccio near Veio) had three cellae, side by side, conjoined by a double row of columns on the facade. This is an entirely new setup with respect to the other types of constructions found in Etruria and the Tyrrhenian side of Italy, which have one cell with or without columns, as seen in Greece and the Orient.

Egyptian temples

In Egyptology, naos refers to that which is hidden and unknown inside the inner sanctum of a temple, but also to little boxlike shrines, carried by statues etc.

Christian churches

In early Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism#Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus and interpreted by Christians to have been prophesied in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament....
and Byzantine architecture

Byzantine architecture

Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine I moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to Byzantium....
, the cella is an area at the centre of the church reserved for performing the liturgy

Liturgy

A liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to their particular traditions. The word may refer to an elaborate formal ritual such as the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy and Mass , or a daily activity such as the Muslim salat and Jewish Jewish services....
.

In later periods a small chapel or monk

Monk

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

Cella

Greek and Roman temples

Etruscan temples

Egyptian temples

Christian churches

See also