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19-453: Since towers supporting spires are usually square, square-plan spires emerge directly from the tower's walls, but octagonal spires are either built above a pyramidal transition section called a broach at the spire's base, or else free spaces around the tower's summit for decorative elements like pinnacles . The former solution is known as a broach spire . Small or short spires are known as spikes , spirelets , or flèches . This sense of

38-427: A basilica -type building, the strict definition of the term "nave" is restricted to the central aisle. In a broader, more colloquial sense, the nave includes all areas available for the lay worshippers, including the side-aisles and transepts. Either way, the nave is distinct from the area reserved for the choir and clergy . The nave extends from the entry—which may have a separate vestibule (the narthex )—to

57-568: A spirelet or spike on the rooftop of a building. In particular, the spirelets often built atop the crossings of major churches in mediaeval French Gothic architecture are called flèches. On the ridge of the roof on top of the crossing (the intersection of the nave and the transepts ) of a church, flèches were typically light, delicate, timber-framed constructions with a metallic sheath of lead or copper. They are often richly decorated with architectural and sculptural embellishments: tracery , crockets , and miniature buttresses serve to adorn

76-446: A fully exposed structure of arches not unlike the arches of a medieval European crown . The spire itself is supported by buttress structures. A needle-spire is a particularly tall and narrow spire emerging from a tower surrounded by a parapet . In general, the term applies to considerably larger and more refined spires than the name Hertfordshire spike. A Hertfordshire spike is a type of short spire, needle-spire, or flèche ringed with

95-623: A parapet and found on church-towers in the British Isles . The roofs of splay-foot spires open out and flatten off at their base, creating eaves above the tower supporting the spire. A flèche ( French : flèche , lit.   'arrow') is a name given to spires in Gothic architecture : in French the word is applied to any spire, but in English it has the technical meaning of

114-411: A spear point, the power and strength of religion. Broach spire A broach spire is a type of spire (tall pyramidal structure), which usually sits atop a tower or turret of a church . It starts on a square base and is carried up to a tapering octagonal spire by means of triangular faces. This article about the architecture of churches or other Christian places of worship

133-427: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This architectural element –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Nave The nave ( / n eɪ v / ) is the central part of a church , stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts , or in a church without transepts, to the chancel . When a church contains side aisles , as in

152-473: Is the section set apart for the laity, while the chancel is reserved for the clergy. In medieval churches the nave was separated from the chancel by the rood screen ; these, being elaborately decorated, were notable features in European churches from the 14th to the mid-16th century. Medieval naves were divided into bays, the repetition of form giving an effect of great length; and the vertical element of

171-523: The " Ship of St. Peter " or the Ark of Noah . The term may also have been suggested by the keel shape of the vaulting of a church. In many Nordic and Baltic countries a model ship is commonly found hanging in the nave of a church, and in some languages the same word means both 'nave' and 'ship', as for instance Danish skib , Swedish skepp , Dutch schip or Spanish nave . The earliest churches were built when builders were familiar with

190-431: The 2019 Notre-Dame de Paris fire . It will be rebuilt in the same form. A pinnacle is a miniature spire that was used both as a decorative and functional element. In early Gothic, as at Notre-Dame de Paris, stone pinnacles were placed atop flying buttresses , to give them additional weight and stability, and to counterbalance the outward thrust from the rib vaults of the nave. As an ornament, they were used to break up

209-469: The architect Christopher Wren designed reinforcing beams which halted the deformation of the structure. Openwork spires were a notable architectural innovation, beginning with the spire at Freiburg Minster , in which the pierced stonework was held together by iron cramps. The openwork spire, represented a radical but logical extension of the Gothic tendency toward a skeletal structure. Crown spires have

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228-525: The chancel and may be flanked by lower side-aisles separated from the nave by an arcade . If the aisles are high and of a width comparable to the central nave, the structure is sometimes said to have three naves. It provides the central approach to the high altar . The term nave is from navis , the Latin word for ship , an early Christian symbol of the Church as a whole, with a possible connection to

247-595: The flèche. The most famous flèche was the Neo-Gothic 19th-century design by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc for the Notre-Dame de Paris , 100 feet (30 meters) tall and richly decorated with sculpture. The original flèche of Notre-Dame was built in the 13th century, and removed in 1786, shortly before the French Revolution . The famous replacement by Viollet-le-Duc with an abundance of sculpture was destroyed in

266-512: The form of the Roman basilica , a public building for business transactions. It had a wide central area, with aisles separated by columns, and with windows near the ceiling. Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is an early church which had this form. It was built in the 4th century on the orders of Roman emperor Constantine I , and replaced in the 16th century. The nave, the main body of the building,

285-440: The horizontal lines, such as parapets and the roofs of towers. In later Gothic, they were sometimes often clustered together into forests of vertical ornament. In Gothic architecture , where the spire is most commonly used, and particularly in Gothic cathedrals and churches it symbolised the heavenly aspirations of churches' builders, as well as offering a visual spectacle of extreme height. It also suggested, by its similarity to

304-418: The sides, at an angle to the faces of the tower, as at St Columba, Cologne . In the 12th and 13th centuries, more ornament was added to the faces of the spires, particularly gabled dormers over the centres of the faces of the towers, as in the southwest tower of Chartres Cathedral . Additional vertical ornament, in the form of slender pinnacles in pyramid shapes, were often placed around the spires, to express

323-530: The transition between the square base and the octagonal spire. The spires of the late 13th century achieved great height; one example was Fribourg Cathedral in Switzerland, where the gabled lantern and spire reached a height of 385 feet (117 meters). In England, a tall needle spire was sometimes constructed at the edge of tower, with pinnacles at the other corners. The western spires of Lichfield Cathedral are an example. Spires were particularly fragile in

342-418: The wind, and a number of English Gothic spires collapsed; notably that of Malmesbury Abbey (1180–1500); Lincoln Cathedral (which had been the tallest in the world) 1349–1549; and Chichester Cathedral (1402–1861). The spire of Salisbury Cathedral , completed in 1320 and 404 feet (123 meters) tall, without the tower, required the addition of buttresses, arches and tie irons to keep it intact. Finally, in 1668

361-734: The word spire is attested in English since the 1590s, spir having been used in Middle Low German since the 14th century, a form related to the Old English word spir , meaning a sprout, shoot, or stalk of grass. The Gothic church spire originated in the 12th century as a simple, four-sided pyramidal structure on top of a church tower. The spire could be constructed of masonry, as at Salisbury Cathedral , or of wood covered with lead, as at Notre-Dame de Paris . Gradually, spires became taller, slimmer, and more complex in form. Triangular sections of masonry, called broaches were added to

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