Church

I

Introduction

Church, a building designed as a place of worship for Christians. In size and design, churches range from the small parish church of simple construction—just large enough to hold a small village congregation—to the huge and complicated cathedral, a church that is the seat of a bishop. Cathedrals were generally built as an ostentatious feat of architecture and to bestow prestige upon a city; with lavish decoration and with different spaces for various religious activities and observances. Because many branches of Christianity exist, no single type of church building predominates. Some Christians worship with little ceremony, some with elaborate ritual; some make use of statues and paintings, some do not. Thus, churches vary in appearance, having been planned to suit one or another kind of religious practice.

II

Two Basic Plans

In general, two types of plans predominate: the basilica form, with a long axis running from a doorway centred at one narrow end to the altar at the other; and the centralized church, circular or polygonal in plan, with one large central space, usually with a dome overhead. The two basic shapes are combined in many different ways, and either one can be modulated to a crosslike form by the addition of projecting wings, either in the form of a Greek cross (with arms of equal length) or a Latin cross (with one longer arm, the nave). Elaborate churches may have separate rooms for baptism, for treasures and relics, for robing the clergy, and for administration. They may also have more than one altar and subsidiary chapels.

III

Early Christian Churches

The design of churches also varies according to the architectural style prevalent at the period in which they were built; styles of the past have often been revived and reinterpreted. The earliest Christian meeting places were converted houses called titulae. After Christianity was legitimized by the Edict of Milan in 313, basilicas and centralized churches sprang up quickly in the next 50 years throughout the Roman Empire. The major ones were built over the most sacred shrines; the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was built over the supposed spots where Christ was crucified and entombed, and St Peter's Basilica in Rome was built over the grave of St Peter, for example. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre consisted of a circular, domed structure (still partly preserved), and a basilica nearby; the two are now combined. The original St Peter's Basilica in Rome, replaced by the present church during the Renaissance, was a huge processional basilica with projecting wings—transepts—forming a Latin cross in plan. The domed, centralized form persisted in the Byzantine and Slavic East, where medieval churches, small in scale, often took the form of five domes arranged on a Greek cross plan.

IV

Medieval European Churches

In the Western, Latin world the basilica form was adopted first for Romanesque (11th-12th century) and then Gothic (12th-15th century) churches. These were vaulted, the Romanesque with arches and vaults of semicircular form, and the Gothic with pointed elements. The Romanesque church was largely the result of monastic influence, which concentrated the forces of church building in prosperous communities of monks, especially in France. Major churches were erected by monastic architects along the great pilgrimage routes that ran from northern Europe south to Spain and to Rome. In the creation of the Gothic style the merchants in the emerging cities, together with powerful ecclesiastics, played the crucial role. The first fully characterized Gothic structure was the royal abbey of St Denis, outside Paris, built in the middle of the 12th century; it was the creation of the great ecclesiastical administrator Abbot Suger. By the 14th century most European cities, including those in the British Isles, had a Gothic cathedral, a vast and intricate structure with spacious windows of stained glass, and entranceways and roofs encrusted with a profusion of sculpture.