Transept

For the periodical, seeThe Transept.

Cathedral ground plan. The shaded area is the transept; the darker shading at the centre represents thecrossing.

South transept atKilcooly Abbey,County Tipperary,Ireland

Atransept(with twosemitransepts) is a transverse part of anybuilding,which lies across the main body of the building.Incruciform( "cross-shaped ")churches,in particular within theRomanesqueandGothicChristianchurcharchitectural traditions, a transept is an area set crosswise to thenave.Each half of a transept is known as a semitransept.

Description

The transept of a church separates the nave from thesanctuary,apse,choir,chevet,presbytery,orchancel.The transepts cross the nave at thecrossing,which belongs equally to the main nave axis and to the transept. Upon its fourpiers,the crossing may support aspire(e.g.,Salisbury Cathedral), a centraltower(e.g.,Gloucester Cathedral) or a crossingdome(e.g.,St Paul's Cathedral). Since thealtaris 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 decoratedwindowsofstained glass,such asrose windows,in stonetracery.

Occasionally, thebasilicasand the church andcathedralplanning that descended from them were built without transepts; sometimes the transepts were reduced to matchedchapels.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 aLatin crossground plan, and these extensions are known as the "arms" of the transept.AGreek crossground plan, with all four extensions the same length, produces a central-plan structure.

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

Vault of the northern semitransept ofSaint Catherine's Old Church,Żejtun,Malta

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" ofThe Crystal Palace,London, of glass and iron that was built for theGreat Exhibitionof 1851.

In ametro stationor similar construction, a transept is a space over theplatformsandtracksof a station with side platforms, containing thebridgebetween the platforms. Placing the bridge in a transept rather than an enclosedtunnelallows passengers to see the platforms, creating a less cramped feeling and making orientation easier.

See also

• Aisle
• Cathedral architecture
• Cathedral diagram
• Glossary of the Catholic Church
• Transom (architectural)

External links

• Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)."Transept".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 172.