NAVE (nayv)
The
central part of a church
Common clues: Pew's place; Section
flanked by aisles; Center of a cathedral; Basilica part; Church
area; Congregational area
Crossword
puzzle frequency:
once a year
Frequency
in English language:
12113 / 86800
Video: National
Cathedral Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar. "Nave" ( Medieval Latin navis, "ship,") was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting. The nave of a church, whether Romanesque, Gothic or Classical, extends from the entry—which may have a separate vestibule, the narthex— to the chancel and is flanked by lower aisles separated from the nave by an arcade.
Romanesque
nave of the abbey church of Saint-Georges-de-Boscherville,
Normandy/ Picture taken by Urban, December 2004/ GFDL
Though to a modern visitor the impressive nave seems to be the principal part of a Gothic church, ambitious churches were built in a series of campaigns as funds were available, working outward from the liturgically essential sanctuary, and many were consecrated before their nave was completed. Many naves were not completed to the initial plan, as tastes changed, and some naves were never completed at all. In Gothic architecture, the precise number of arcaded bays in the nave was not a material concern.
The height of the nave provides space for clerestory windows above the aisle roofs, which give light to the interior, leaving the apse in shadow, as at the abbey of Saint-Georges-de-Boscherville (illustration, above). The architectural antecedents of this construction lay in the secular Roman basilica, a kind of covered stoa sited adjacent to a forum, where magistrates met and public business was transacted.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Nave".
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