Apse

Also called apsis, apses

A semicircular (sometimes polygonal) recess at the end of a hall or church, usually covered by a half-dome. In the Roman basilica it held the magistrate’s tribunal; in the church, the altar and the bishop’s throne.

Rules that use the word

From the atrium to the apse. Order the church as a single path: a colonnaded atrium, a narthex, the long nave drawn toward the altar, and the apse framed by a triumphal arch at the end of the axis.

The cross-in-square: nine bays. Divide a square naos into nine bays: dome the central one on a drum over four columns, barrel-vault the four arms of the cross, and cover the four corner bays lower; add three apses to the east and a narthex to the west.

The Latin cross: nave, aisles, transept, apse. Lay out the church as an Early Christian basilica (a tall nave lit from above, lower aisles on either side, a sanctuary ending in an apse to the east) and cross it with a transept, so that the plan becomes a Latin cross with a tower over the crossing.

Apses in echelon. Multiply altars at the east end by opening apses off the transept arms and the choir, stepped back from the main apse in echelon, each with its own small semidome and roof.

Build after the model. Build the principal cathedral after an honoured prototype: study the old cathedral that is to be the model and keep its form (five domes, walls divided into bays each crowned with a rounded gable, three apses to the east) while building it with the best new craft.

Where it appears in the book

In the chapters Domes, The Classical World, Byzantium and the Early Church, Romanesque and Gothic.

A feature of Early Christian, Russian, Romanesque architecture.

Nearby in the glossary

Anticlastic · Apadana · Apophyge · Apron moulding · Aqueduct · Arabesque · Araeostyle · Arboretum