Apse chapel
An apse chapel, apsidal chapel, or chevet is a chapel in traditional Christian church architecture, which radiates tangentially from one of the bays or divisions of the apse. It is reached generally by a semicircular passageway, or ambulatory, exteriorly to the walls or piers of the apse.
Features
In plan, the normal type of the tangential chapel is semicircular; some, however, are pentagonal, and some composed of a small circle, serving as choir, and part of a large circle, as nave; some are oblong with eastern apses. In
The common source of the ambulatory and radiating chapels seems to have been the church of
Each apsidal chapel could be treated as a sanctuary, to be entered only by the officiating, priest and his attendants, and the ambulatory served as the necessary nave for the worshippers. The usual number of these radiating chapels is three. Apse chapels are often found in the
St. Martin of Tours, St. Savin, and Cluny have five choir chapels; Amiens, Beauvais Cologne, and Le Mans have seven apsidal chapels. No ambulatory with tangential chapels is older than about 900. The peri-apsidal plan of Westminster Abbey, commenced in 1050 by Edward the Confessor, anticipated Cluny by thirty-nine years, a plan which was reproduced at Gloucester in 1089 and at Norwich in 1096.[citation needed]
Radiating chapels are almost entirely a continental plan and most frequently found in French and
See also
References
Bibliography
- Moore, Charles (1890). Development and character of Gothic architecture. London.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Bloxam, Matthew Holbeche (1882). Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture (11 ed.). London. ISBN 9781697526905.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Bond, F. (1906). Gothic Architecture in England. London: B.T. Batsford.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Apse Chapel". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.[1]