What is the term for a circular or polygonal apse surrounded by an ambulatory containing chapels?

What is the term for a circular or polygonal apse surrounded by an ambulatory containing chapels?

• A. Transept
• B. Apse
• C. Choir
• D. Narthex

Answer: (A)

In medieval church design the term for an eastern end that combines a circular or polygonal apse with an ambulatory and radiating chapels is chevet. The apse is the curved or polygonal recess at the end of the church, the ambulatory is the walkway around that end, and the chapels are the small spaces opening off the ambulatory. This arrangement allows multiple altars or burial chapels without interrupting the main liturgical space, and it’s a hallmark of many Gothic and late medieval churches. This isn’t the transept, which is the cross arm crossing the nave to form a cruciform plan. It isn’t just the apse, which is only the end recess, nor the choir, which is the area for the singers and clergy. It isn’t the narthex, the entrance lobby at the opposite end. Therefore, the described term is chevet.

In medieval church design the term for an eastern end that combines a circular or polygonal apse with an ambulatory and radiating chapels is chevet. The apse is the curved or polygonal recess at the end of the church, the ambulatory is the walkway around that end, and the chapels are the small spaces opening off the ambulatory. This arrangement allows multiple altars or burial chapels without interrupting the main liturgical space, and it’s a hallmark of many Gothic and late medieval churches.

This isn’t the transept, which is the cross arm crossing the nave to form a cruciform plan. It isn’t just the apse, which is only the end recess, nor the choir, which is the area for the singers and clergy. It isn’t the narthex, the entrance lobby at the opposite end. Therefore, the described term is chevet.