Everything about Transept totally explained
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.
Rarely 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.
When churches retain a single transept, as at
Pershore Abbey, there's generally a historical disaster, fire, war or funding, 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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Transept'.
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