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Typical early Christian Byzantine apse with a hemispherical semi-dome in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe

Typical floor plan of a cathedral. Apse is shown in beige

In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin absis: "arch, vault" from Greek ἀψίς apsis "arch"; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an exedra. In Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic Christian church (including cathedral and abbey) architecture, the term is applied to a semi-circular or polygonal termination of the main building at the liturgical east end (where the altar is), regardless of the shape of the roof, which may be flat, sloping, domed, or hemispherical. Smaller apses may also be in other locations, especially shrines.^[1]

Definition

An apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault. Commonly, the apse of a church, cathedral or basilica is the semicircular or polygonal termination to the choir or sanctuary, or sometimes at the end of an aisle. In relation to church architecture it is generally the name given to where the altar is placed or where the clergy are seated.^[2] An apse is occasionally found in a synagogue, e.g. Maoz Haim Synagogue.

The apse is separated from the main part of the church by the transept.^[3]

Smaller apses are sometimes built in locations other than the east end, especially for reliquaries or shrines of saints.^[4]

Features

The domed apse became a standard part of the church plan in the early Christian era.^[5]

Related features

In the Eastern Orthodox Church tradition, the south apse is known as diaconicon and the north apse as prothesis. Various ecclesiastical features of which the apse may form part are drawn together here:

Chancel

The chancel (or sanctuary), directly to the east beyond the choir contains the High Altar, where there is one (compare communion table). This area is reserved for the clergy, and was therefore formerly called the "presbytery," from the Greek presbuteros meaning "elder",^{[citation needed]} or in older and Catholic usage, "priest".^[6][7]

Chevet-apse chapels

Hemi-cyclic choirs, first developed in the East, came to use in France in 470.^[8] By the onset of the 13th century, they had been augmented with radiating apse chapels outside the choir aisle, the entire structure of Apse, Choir and radiating chapels coming to be known as the chevet (French, "headpiece").^[9] Famous northern French examples of chevets are in the Gothic cathedrals of Amiens, Beauvais and Reims. Such radiating chapels are found in England in Norwich and Canterbury cathedrals, but the fully developed feature is essentially French, though the Francophile connoisseur Henry III introduced it into Westminster Abbey.^{[citation needed]}

Ambulatory

The word "ambulatory" refers to a curving aisle in the apse that passes behind the altar and choir, giving access to chapels in the chevet. An "ambulatory" ("walking space") may refer to the arcade passages that enclose a cloister in a monastery, or to other types of aisles round the edge of a church building, for example in circular churches.^{[citation needed]}

Gallery

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  Triple apse of Basilica di Santa Giulia, northern Italy
  

  
  

  
  


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  East end of the abbey church of Saint-Ouen, showing the chevet, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France
  

  
  

  
  


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  A chevet apse vault
  

  
  

  
  


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  A simple apse set into the east end of St Chad's parish church, at Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England
  

  
  

  
  


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  The decorated apse of the Cathedral of Monreale, Sicily
  

  
  

  
  


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  The apse of St. Martin church in Busskirch, community Jona, Switzerland
  

  
  

  
  


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  Apse for Torah Ark in the ancient Maon Synagogue
  

  
  

  
  


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  The triple apse of an Orthodox church in Yaroslavl, Russia
  

  
  

  
  

See also

• Architectural development of the eastern end of cathedrals in England and France


• Byzantine architecture


• Cathedral architecture


• Church architecture


• Narthex

References

• 
  Joseph Nechvatal, "Immersive Excess in the Apse of Lascaux", Technonoetic Arts 3, no. 3, 2005.

External links

• 
   Spiers, Richard Phené (1911). "Apse". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 231–232. This has a detailed description of examples in the early church.

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