Transept

Transept

"Full descriptions of the elements of a Gothic floorplan are found at the entry Cathedral diagram."
"For the periodical go to The Transept."

The transept is the area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture. The transept separates the nave from the sanctuary, whether apse, choir, chevet, presbytery or chancel. The transepts cross the nave at the crossing, which belongs equally to the main nave axis and to the transept. Upon its four piers, the crossing may support a spire, a central tower (see Gloucester Cathedral) or a crossing dome. Since the altar is usually located at the east end of a church, a transept extends to the north and south. The north and south end walls often hold decorated windows of stained glass, such as rose windows, in stone tracery.

Occasionally, the basilicas and the church and cathedral planning that descended from them were built without transepts; sometimes the transepts were reduced to matched chapels. More often the transepts extended well beyond the sides of the rest of the building, forming the shape of a cross. This design is called a "Latin cross" ground plan and these extensions are known as the arms of the transept. A "Greek cross" ground plan, with all four extensions the same length, produces a central-plan structure with consequences for the liturgy.Clarifyme|date=March 2008

When churches have only one transept, as at Pershore Abbey, there is generally a historical disaster, fire, war or funding problem, to explain the anomaly. At Beauvais only the chevet and transepts stand; the nave of the cathedral was never completed after a collapse of the daring high vaulting in 1284. At St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague, only the choir and part of a southern transept were completed until a renewed building campaign in the 19th century.

Other senses of the word

The word "transept" is occasionally extended to mean any subsidiary corridor crossing a larger main corridor, such as the cross-halls or "transepts" of The Crystal Palace of glass and iron that was built for the Great Exhibition of 1851.

In a metro station or similar construction, a transept is a space over the platforms and tracks of a station with side platforms, containing the bridge between the platforms. Placing the bridge in a transept rather than an enclosed tunnel allows passengers to see the platforms, creating a less cramped feeling and making orientation easier.

ee also

* Cathedral architecture
* Apse
* Aisle


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • TRANSEPT — TRANSEP Terme qui désigne, dans l’architecture religieuse médiévale et moderne, une nef transversale, divisée intérieurement en un ou plusieurs vaisseaux; le transept croise perpendiculairement la nef de l’édifice en avant du chœur ou de l’abside …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Transept — et autres parties d une église. Le transept est une nef transversale qui coupe à angle droit la nef principale d’une église et qui lui donne ainsi la forme symbolique d’une croix latine. Outre ce côté symbolique, le transept participe à la… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Transept — • A rectangular space inserted between the apse and nave in the early Christian basilica Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Transept     Transept      …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • transept — TRANSÉPT, transepturi, s.n. Naos transversal care taie în unghi drept naosul principal al unei biserici, alcătuind cu acesta un plan în formă de cruce. – Din fr. transept. Trimis de ionel bufu, 28.06.2004. Sursa: DEX 98  transépt s. n. (sil.… …   Dicționar Român

  • Transept — Tran sept, n. [Pref. trans + L. septum an inclosure. See {Septum}.] (Arch.) The transversal part of a church, which crosses at right angles to the greatest length, and between the nave and choir. In the basilicas, this had often no projection at… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • transept — {{/stl 13}}{{stl 8}}rz. mnż I, D. u, Mc. transeptpcie, archit. {{/stl 8}}{{stl 7}} nawa poprzeczna w kościele zbudowanym na planie krzyża, zwykle oddzielająca nawę główną i nawy boczne od prezbiterium : {{/stl 7}}{{stl 10}}Transept jedno ,… …   Langenscheidt Polski wyjaśnień

  • Transept — Transept, s. Transsept …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Transept — (Transsept, lat.), jeder Querbau, der die Längenausdehnung eines Gebäudes unterbricht und Querflügel bildet (z. B. das Kreuzschiff christlicher Kirchen) …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Transépt — (lat.), Querbau; bes. Querschiff einer Kirche …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • transept — (n.) transverse section of a cruciform church, 1530s, from M.L. transeptum, from L. trans across (see TRANS (Cf. trans )) + saeptum fence, partition, enclosure (see SEPTUM (Cf. septum)). Rare before 1700 …   Etymology dictionary

  • transept — ► NOUN ▪ (in a cross shaped church) either of the two parts forming the arms of the cross shape, projecting at right angles from the nave. ORIGIN Latin transeptum, from septum partition …   English terms dictionary

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