Secular building

Example of a secular building: The Fridericianum in Kassel from 1779, one of the first public museums on the European continent

A secular building ( profane = 'secular', 'unchurched', 'unholy', from Latin : pro = 'before', 'fanum' = 'sanctuary') is a structure, a building , for worldly purposes. The term is used in the arts and cultural studies, for example within the history of architecture , to delimit (public) buildings and their uses from one another and to typify them. The opposite term to secular building is sacred building , which is reserved for ecclesiastical or religious purposes. Examples of secular buildings are museums, libraries, courts, town halls, university buildings or train stations.

In addition to practical use, buildings can also have other functions; z. B. They can be representative buildings (e.g. palace, courthouse in an elaborate construction with decorative facade) or functional buildings (the latter are more or less unadorned). There were and are different formal languages ; For details see z. B. Architectural style .

literature

• Wilfried Koch : Baustilkunde - European architecture from antiquity to the present , 27th, edited edition 2006, ISBN 9783577100892

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Duden | Profane | Spelling, meaning, definition, origin. Retrieved April 28, 2020 .