Apsida is ... Apsides in temple architecture

Apse in architecture - what is it? In what facilities is it used? How did the apses evolve over time? The answers to all these questions can be found in our article!

Apse is ...

In translation from the ancient Greek language, this word means "vault". The apse is a lowered protrusion that adjoins the main part of the building. The shape of the apse in the plan may be semicircular, rectangular or complex, irregular.

The apse is an architectural element that is covered by a semi-dome or half-lead. Most often this term is used to refer to the attached volumes with an altar in the architecture of Catholic and Orthodox religious buildings.

The apsides first began to be used in ancient Roman public buildings of rectangular shape.

Application of an element in the temple architecture

Most often this element is used in the religious architecture. In the architecture of Christian churches, the apse is part of the church, which is always (with rare exceptions) oriented to the east. It is in it is most often an altar. Apse without an altar is called an apsidiola.

But it can carry a purely decorative function or have practical application. Thus, in the High-Petrovsky Monastery in the cathedral of Peter the Metropolitan, these elements are located on all sides of the structure.

Orthodox churches use an odd number of apses - one or three. In the temples of Constantinople, built in the IX-XIII centuries, there were three such elements and they were used as independent altars. In the architecture of the Catholic churches in the apses there are chapels. Also the apse may be called the inner part of the temple of a semicircular form with an altar and without various protrusions. This technique is used in Western European temple architecture.

Evolution of the apse

In the time of Gothic architecture, from the end of the 12th century, the apses were in the plan of a semi-circular form, and their walls were erected from the masonry. Lintels above the apertures were made with a complicated laying, and the element itself was crowned with a half-cupola. The semicircular plan of the apse came into Gothic architecture from the Romanesque era. Semicircular form was used for a long time, in spite of the fact that the spherical arch was not used.

At the end of the 13th century the round plan of the apse was transformed into a rectangular and polygonal one. This method was first used at the beginning of the same century in Champagne. Even then, buildings with polygonal apses were erected. Also an example of the construction of the choir chapel in Reims, where on the circular plan of the apse foundation, faceted walls were erected.

But in the architecture of England apses were used and are used extremely rarely. Here the central part of the building is a nave, as a rule, it rests against a straight wall decorated with stained glass windows.