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Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design.
Adding transepts improved the stability of the log technique and is one reason why the cruciform floor plan was widely used during 1600 and 1700s. For instance the Old Olden Church (1759) replaced a building damaged by hurricane, the 1759 church was then constructed in cruciform shape to make it withstand the strongest winds. [10]
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 [3] [11] [better source needed] and Christopher Wren's design for St Paul's Cathedral. Most cathedrals and great churches have a cruciform groundplan.
The architectural articulation of the distinct spaces of a cross-in-square church corresponds to their distinct functions in the celebration of the liturgy.The narthex serves as an entrance hall, but also for special liturgical functions, such as baptism, and as an honored site of burial (often, as in the case of the Martorana in Palermo, for the founders of the church).
The two former layouts, the open square (or rarely, circular) and the cruciform have been found best suited to celebration of the Divine Liturgy. These two interior layouts tend to be square/circular in form rather than elongated. The cruciform is the oldest of the two interior layouts and seems to be of Byzantine origin.
Cathedral floor plan (crossing is shaded) A crossing, in ecclesiastical architecture, is the junction of the four arms of a cruciform (cross-shaped) church. [1]In a typically oriented church (especially of Romanesque and Gothic styles), the crossing gives access to the nave on the west, the transept arms on the north and south, and the choir, as the first part of the chancel, on the east.
Such cruciform churches were very common in the West during the Romanesque period. [2] The ideal church plan tended to be symmetrical around a central point during the Renaissance. [10] The longer arm of the Latin cross plan is the nave, which runs on an east–west axis and traditionally contains aisles or chapels.
It is rare for more than one of these features to be present in the same building. A number of early Anglo-Saxon churches are based on a basilica with north and south porticus (projecting chambers) to give a cruciform plan. However cruciform plans for churches were used in other periods.