A hall church is a church type in which the nave and the aisles are almost equal in height and lie together under one continuous or parallel roof. The nave does not rise above the aisles.
Characteristics
Because the nave does not rise above the aisles, there is no clerestory: the row of high upper windows that a basilica has. Daylight therefore enters only through the windows in the aisle walls. This gives a hall church a spacious, open and evenly lit interior, in which the aisles are visually almost as important as the nave.
This contrasts with the basilica, whose nave is built higher and has its own clerestory windows that admit extra light from above.
Applications
The hall church is common in the late Gothic period, among other places in Westphalia and in the Netherlands. The type made large, tall and bright church interiors possible without the complex raising of a basilican nave. Many town and village churches of this period were built as hall churches, so the type is a familiar sight across much of north-western Europe.
Related terms
- Basilica
- Nave
- Aisle
- Clerestory
- Gothic
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