Capella maior

The choir in the narrower sense (inner choir) of a typical church floor plan, marked in red. The choir is formed by two choir bays. The semicircle of the central nave on the right is a sketch of the capella maior.

Ambulatory (red)

The capella maior is the central location of a church where the main altar is located. This main chapel of the church is often easted . In addition to this main chapel, there are mostly small chapels in churches of the Gallic and Germanic architectural style , which adjoin the side aisles (capella minor). The capella maior is marked in yellow in the picture on the right.

The choir and capella maior are also referred to as ecclesiola in ecclesia , because they often form a proportionally smaller but very similar “little church in the church”. The capella maior is then surrounded by an ambulatory that runs along the apse . While the apse describes the entirety of the room ( capella maior and ambulatory), the capella maior forms the apse of the eccesiola in ecclesia, so to speak .

literature

• Louis Bouyer : Man and Rite . Matthias Grünewald Verlag, Mainz 1964, pp. 216-219.