Church layout

The church is a place for religious ceremonies, generally refers specifically to Western religions, including Catholicism, Christianity, Protestantism, etc., the place where Islam conducts religious ceremonies is generally referred to as a mosque, and the place where Judaism engages in religious ceremonies and other activities is also referred to as a synagogue or a Jewish synagogue (Synagogue) in Chinese.

History

The predecessors of the church were the temples of ancient Greece and the Basilicas of ancient Rome.

Beginning with the Byzantine period, the church began to develop its own unique architectural features: a cruciform plan, a tall bell tower, a high and narrow interior, stained mosaic glass windows, etc. The church has been in use for many years.

In the medieval period, the church power ruled over Europe, and churches became the tallest and most magnificent buildings in the city. Gothic churches pursued vertically soaring space, which was so beyond the common scale that believers would feel an atmosphere from heaven as soon as they entered the church.

In the Renaissance, with Martin Luther's religious reform, Gothic churches were no longer favored by architects, and churches became more of an opportunity for architects to build monuments for themselves, and the pursuit of a grand dome became one of the main goals of architects, but due to the lack of advanced building mechanics and building materials, few domed churches have been built and preserved to this day.

Modern churches are no longer limited to the traditional forms of churches, but pay more attention to the creation of religious atmosphere. Glass, wood, concrete and a variety of new materials are widely used in church architecture, but also emerged in a large number of outstanding works, many master architects for the design of unique churches and became famous, such as Alvar Aalto's Thirty Characters Church, Phillip Johnson's Crystal Church, Tadao Ando's "Church of Light", "Church of Water", "Church of Wind" and so on.

Features

Cross planes

Stained glass windows

Domes

Bell towers

Railings and fly-rails

Organs

Grades

Church buildings are divided into four grades:

Chamber/chapel (Chapel, without a priest of the Church)