Choir arch

Choir arch with adjoining barrel in Art Nouveau style in the Karl Borromäus Church in Vienna

A choir arch is an arch in churches between the choir and the nave .

architecture

The choir arch is often drawn deeper than the vault of the choir and nave in order to clarify the delimitation of the rooms. In many churches there is a so-called choir arch crucifix in the choir arch . The choir arch developed from the triumphal arch of the early Christian basilica . It is particularly often found in Romanesque architecture as a round arch and in Gothic architecture as a pointed arch . In churches with transept the chancel arch between choir and corresponds crossing often a Vierungsbogen between transept and nave and, if applicable, further between the crossing and the transept arms.

Bell gable

In French and Spanish churches, in rare cases, a bell gable rises above the choir arch .

Examples

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  Pre-Romanesque crossing with choir arch and crossing arches, St. Michael (Hildesheim)

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  Romanesque choir arch in the St. Lorenz Chapel in Paspels

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  Painted late Gothic choir arch in Ulm Minster with choir arch crucifix

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  Golden Renaissance choir arch under the dome of the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome

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  Baroque choir arch in the monastery church Einsiedeln

literature

• Wilfried Koch : Architectural style. The standard work on European architecture from antiquity to the present. 21st, revised and revised edition. Bertelsmann Lexikon-Verlag, Gütersloh 1998, ISBN 3-577-10480-5 .