Trail:
- Home
- Types
- Religious Buildings
- The Great Churches
- a
- a
- a
- High Contrast, Text-Only Version
- Printer Friendly Version
- Click here to tip a friend about this page
The Great Churches
- Array
- Interactive - The Great Church
Medieval churches demonstrate the power and wealth of the church as an international organisation that throughout the Middle Ages rivalled the significance of secular rulers. The example of the great churches on the Continent, many of them built as centres for pilgrimage or for the new or reformed monastic ordersGlossary Term, provided the impetus for the great wave of church rebuilding in England after the NormanGlossary Term Conquest. The principal components of the great church were developed and refined from the 11th to the 13th century to provide for a complex mixture of activities: services of worship, processions and ceremonies for special occasions, and more informal visits to shrines and chapels.
The east end with the choirGlossary Term for the clergy, focused on the High Altar, provided a place for regular worship; from the 13th century onwards the area to its east, approached by the choirGlossary Term aisles, was developed to provide ample space for shrines and chapels in and around the retrochoirGlossary Term. Transepts stabilised the large open space below the crossing tower and offered space for additional chapels. The long aisled naveGlossary Term was (with the exception of certain monasteries) available for lay people, and had its own altar to the west of the screenGlossary Term or pulpitumGlossary Term dividing off the choirGlossary Term stalls. The west front was often elaborated by towers and sculpture to provide a public showpiece, while the precinct of the church contained the many buildings used by the clergy.
Last updated: Saturday, 25th April 2009