Apse

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File:Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe - Mosaic.jpg

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

Typical floor plan of a cathedral, with the apse shaded

In architecture, an apse (Template:Plural form: apses; from Latin Template:Lang, 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek Template:Lang, Template:Transliteration, 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; Template:Plural form: 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 are found elsewhere, especially in shrines.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Definition

An apse is a semicircular recess, often 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.

Smaller apses are sometimes built in other parts of the church, especially for reliquaries or shrines of saints.Template:Citation needed

History

The domed apse became a standard part of the church plan in the early Christian era.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Related features

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

Chancel

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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 Greek presbuteros, "elder", Template:Citation needed or in older and Catholic usage "priest".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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Chevet-apse chapels

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Semi-circular choirs, first developed in the East, which came into use in France in 470.<ref>Moss, Henry, The Birth of the Middle Ages 395-814, Clarendon Press, 1935</ref> 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").<ref>"Chevet", Encyclopædia Britannica</ref>

Gallery

Triple apse of Basilica di Santa Giulia, northern Italy
East end of the abbey church of Saint-Ouen, showing the chevet, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France
A chevet apse vault, Toulouse, France
Apsed chancel of St Mary's Church, West Dean, Wiltshire, England
The decorated apse of the Cathedral of Monreale, Sicily
The apse of Manila Cathedral, Philippines
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The apse of St. Martin church in Busskirch, community Jona, Switzerland