1.
Christian cross variants
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This is a list of Christian cross variants. The Christian cross, with or without a figure of Christ included, is the religious symbol of Christianity. A cross with figure of Christ affixed to it is termed a crucifix, the term Greek cross designates a cross with arms of equal length, as in a plus sign, while the term Latin cross designates a cross with an elongated descending arm. Numerous other variants have developed during the medieval period. Christian crosses are used widely in churches, on top of buildings, on bibles, in heraldry, in personal jewelry, on hilltops. Crosses are a prominent feature of Christian cemeteries, either carved on gravestones or as sculpted stelae, roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran depictions of the cross are often crucifixes, in order to emphasize that it is Jesus that is important, rather than the cross in isolation. Large crucifixes are a prominent feature of some Lutheran churches, as illustrated in the article Rood, several Christian cross variants are available in computer-displayed text. The Latin cross symbol is included in the character set as 271D. For others, see Religious and political symbols in Unicode, basic variants, or early variants widespread since antiquity
2.
Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris
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Saint-Sulpice is a Roman Catholic church in Paris, France, on the east side of the Place Saint-Sulpice within the rue Bonaparte, in the Luxembourg Quarter of the 6th arrondissement. At 113 metres long,58 metres in width and 34 metres tall, it is slightly smaller than Notre-Dame. It is dedicated to Sulpitius the Pious, construction of the present building, the second church on the site, began in 1646. During the 18th century, a gnomon, the Gnomon of Saint-Sulpice, was constructed in the church. The present church is the building on the site, erected over a Romanesque church originally constructed during the 13th century. Additions were made over the centuries, up to 1631, the new building was founded in 1646 by parish priest Jean-Jacques Olier who had established the Society of Saint-Sulpice, a clerical congregation, and a seminary attached to the church. Anne of Austria laid the first stone, gittard completed the sanctuary, ambulatory, apsidal chapels, transept, and north portal, after which construction was halted for lack of funds. Gilles-Marie Oppenord and Giovanni Servandoni, adhering closely to Gittards designs, the decoration was executed by the brothers Sébastien-Antoine Slodtz and Paul-Ambroise Slodtz. He also built a bell-tower on top of the transept crossing and this miscalculation may account for the fact that Oppenord was then relieved of his duties as an architect and restricted to designing decoration. In 1732 a competition was held for the design of the west facade, won by Servandoni, the 1739 Turgot map of Paris shows the church without Oppenords crossing bell-tower, but with Servandonis pedimented facade mostly complete, still lacking however its two towers. Unfinished at the time of his death in 1766, the work was continued by others, primarily the obscure Oudot de Maclaurin, Chalgrin also designed the decoration of the chapels under the towers. The principal facade now exists in altered form. Large arched windows fill the vast interior with natural light, the result is a simple two-storey west front with three tiers of elegant columns. The overall harmony of the building is, some say, only marred by the two mismatched towers, one can still barely make out the printed words ‘’Le Peuple Francais Reconnoit L’Etre Suprême Et L’Immortalité de L’Âme’’. Further questions of interest are the fate of the frieze that this must have replaced, the responsible for placing this manifesto. Inside the church to either side of the entrance are the two halves of a shell given to King Francis I by the Venetian Republic. They function as holy water fonts and rest on rock-like bases sculpted by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, Pigalle also designed the large white marble statue of Mary in the Lady Chapel at the far end of the church. The stucco decoration surrounding it is by Louis-Philippe Mouchy, pigalles work replaced a solid-silver statue by Edmé Bouchardon, which vanished at the time of the Revolution
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Church architecture
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Church architecture refers to the architecture of buildings of Christian churches. These large, often ornate and architecturally prestigious buildings were dominant features of the towns, however, far more numerous were the parish churches in Christendom, the focus of Christian devotion in every town and village. In the 20th century, the use of new materials, such as steel, the history of church architecture divides itself into periods, and into countries or regions and by religious affiliation. The simplest church building comprises a single meeting space, built of locally available material, such churches are generally rectangular, but in African countries where circular dwellings are the norm, vernacular churches may be circular as well. A simple church may be built of mud brick, wattle and daub and it may be roofed with thatch, shingles, corrugated iron or banana leaves. However, church congregations, from the 4th century onwards, have sought to construct buildings that were both permanent and aesthetically pleasing. This had led to a tradition in which congregations and local leaders have invested time, money and personal prestige into the building, within any parish, the local church is often the oldest building, and is larger than any pre-19th-century structure except perhaps a barn. The church is built of the most durable material available. To the two-room structure is often added aisles, a tower, chapels, in the first three centuries of the Early Christian Church, the practice of Christianity was illegal and few churches were constructed. In the beginning Christians worshipped along with Jews in synagogues and in private houses, after the separation of Jews and Christians the latter continued to worship in peoples houses, known as house churches. These were often the homes of the members of the faith. Saint Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians writes, aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, greet you warmly in the Lord. Some domestic buildings were adapted to function as churches, one of the earliest of adapted residences is at Dura Europos church, built shortly after 200 AD, where two rooms were made into one, by removing a wall, and a dais was set up. To the right of the entrance a small room was made into a baptistry, some church buildings were specifically built as church assemblies, such as that opposite the emperor Diocletians palace in Nicomedia. The books of the Holy Scriptures were found, and they were committed to the flames, the utensils and furniture of the church were abandoned to pillage, all was rapine, confusion, tumult. That church, situated on rising ground, was within view of the palace, and Diocletian and Galerius stood, as if on a watchtower, disputing long whether it ought to be set on fire. The sentiment of Diocletian prevailed, who dreaded lest, so great a fire being once kindled, some part of the city might he burnt, for there were many and large buildings that surrounded the church. Then the Pretorian Guards came in battle array, with axes and other iron instruments, from the first to the early fourth centuries most Christian communities worshipped in private homes, often secretly
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Transept
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A transept is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the edifice. In churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a building within the Romanesque. Each half of a transept is known as a semitransept, the transept of a church separates the nave from the sanctuary, apse, choir, chevet, presbytery or chancel. The transepts cross the nave at the crossing, which belongs equally to the main nave axis, upon its four piers, the crossing may support a spire, a central tower or a crossing dome. Since the altar is located at the east end of a church. The north and south end walls often hold decorated windows of stained glass, such as rose windows, occasionally, the basilicas and the church and cathedral planning that descended from them were built without transepts, sometimes the transepts were reduced to matched chapels. More often, the transepts extended well beyond the sides of the rest of the building, forming the shape of a cross and this design is called a Latin cross ground plan, and these extensions are known as the arms of the transept. A Greek cross ground plan, with all four extensions the same length, when churches have only one transept, as at Pershore Abbey, there is generally a historical disaster, fire, war or funding problem, to explain the anomaly. At Beauvais only the chevet and transepts stand, the nave of the cathedral was never completed after a collapse of the daring high vaulting in 1284. At St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague, only the choir, in a metro station or similar construction, a transept is a space over the platforms and tracks of a station with side platforms, containing the bridge between the platforms. Placing the bridge in a rather than an enclosed tunnel allows passengers to see the platforms. Aisle Apse Cathedral architecture Cathedral diagram Glossary of the Catholic Church Transom
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Chancel
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In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary, at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse and it is generally the area used by the clergy and choir during worship, while the congregation is in the nave. Direct access may be provided by a door, usually on the south side of the church. In smaller churches, where the altar is backed by the outside east wall and there is no distinct choir, in churches with a retroquire area behind the altar, this may only be included in the broader definition of chancel. In a cathedral or other large church there may be a choir area at the start of the chancel, before reaching the sanctuary. All these may be included in the chancel, at least in architectural terms, in churches with less traditional plans the term may not be useful in either architectural or ecclesiastical terms. The chancel may be a step or two higher than the level of the nave, and the sanctuary is often raised still further and this is an arch which separates the chancel from the nave and transept of a church. As well as the altar, the sanctuary may house a credence table, in some churches, the congregation may gather on three sides or in a semicircle around the chancel. In some churches, the pulpit and lectern may be in the chancel, the word chancel derives from the French usage of chancel from the Late Latin word cancellus. This refers to the form of rood screens. The chancel was formerly known as the presbytery, because it was reserved for the clergy, a large chancel made most sense in monasteries and cathedrals where there was a large number of singing clergy and boys from a choir school to occupy the choir. These usually sat in the nave, with any lay congregation, however the screen enjoyed a small revival in the 19th century, after the passionate urgings of Augustus Pugin, who wrote A Treatise on Chancel Screens and Rood Lofts, and others. After the Reformation Protestant churches generally moved the forward, typically to the front of the chancel. The rear of deep chancels became little used in churches surviving from the Middle Ages, with the emphasis on sermons, and their audibility, some churches simply converted their chancels to seat part of the congregation. Fleming, John, Honour, Hugh, Pevsner, Nikolaus, Dictionary of Architecture,1980, Pevsner, Nikolaus, Priscilla Metcalf, The Cathedrals of England, Southern England,1985, Viking White, James F. The Cambridge Movement, The Ecclesiologists and the Gothic Revival,1962, Wipf and Stock Publishers, ISBN1592449379,9781592449378, google books Chancel
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Aisle
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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. Aisles can also be seen in shops, warehouses, and factories, in warehouses and factories, aisles may consist of storage pallets, and in factories, aisles may separate work areas. In health clubs, exercise equipment is arranged in aisles. Aisles are distinguished from corridors, hallways, walkways, footpaths/pavements, trails, paths, aisles have certain general physical characteristics, They are virtually always straight, not curved. An open space that had three rows of chairs to the right of it and three to the left generally would not be considered an aisle. Theatres, meeting halls, shops, etc. usually have aisles wide enough for 2-3 strangers to walk past each other without feeling uncomfortably close. In such facilities, anything that could accommodate more than 4 people side-by-side would generally be considered an open area. Factory work area aisles are wide enough for workers to comfortably sit or stand at their work area, while allowing safe and efficient movement of persons. Passage aisles usually are quite enough for a large person to carry a suitcase in each hand. Usually, even without luggage one person must turn sideways in order for the one to pass. Warehouse aisles normally are at least 8–10 feet wide, to use of mechanical loading equipment. Wedding aisles are wide enough to allow two people to walk comfortably beside each other and still have space, the width of these aisles varies and is up to those who design the layout of the wedding. Vehicle aisles are wide enough to allow a type of vehicle to pass one or two way. Width generally varies for vehicle type and other variables like no of parking accessibility etc. Note that spaces between buildings, e. g. rows of storage sheds, would not be considered aisles, in architecture, an aisle is more specifically the wing of a house, or a lateral division of a large building. The earliest examples of aisles date back to the Roman times and can be found in the Basilica Ulpia, the church of St. Peters in Rome has the same number. In cathedral architecture, an aisle is more specifically a passageway to either side of the nave that is separated from the nave by colonnades or arcades, occasionally aisles stop at the transepts, but often aisles can be continued around the apse. Aisles are thus categorized as nave-aisles, transept-aisles or choir-aisles, a semi-circular choir with aisles continued around it, providing access to a series of chapels, is a chevet
