Church (building)

"Church building" and "Church house" redirect here. For the building in Poughkeepsie, New York, see Church Building. For other uses, see Church House.

Church
Trieste Cathedral, a church dedicated to Saint Justus (1320)
Trieste Cathedral, a church dedicated to Saint Justus (1320)
General information
Type	Place of worship
Architectural style	Various (Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, etc.)
Location	Worldwide
Current tenants	Christian congregations
Owner	Various religious organizations
Dimensions
Other dimensions	Often includes: Nave and aisles Altar Bell tower or steeple Cross-shaped floor plan Dome or vaulted ceiling
Technical details
Structural system	Various (load-bearing walls, vaulted ceilings, domes)

A village church in South Sudan

A church is a building used for Christian worship services and Christian activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between AD 233 and AD 256. The word church also describes a body or assembly of Christian believers, while "the Church" refers to the worldwide Christian religious community.

In traditional Christian architecture, the plan view of a church often forms a Christian cross. The center aisle and seating create the vertical beam, while the bema and altar form the horizontal arms. Towers or domes rise above the heaven-facing roof line to encourage contemplation of the divine. Modern churches employ varied architectural styles, and many buildings originally designed for other purposes have been converted to churches. From the 11th to the 14th centuries, Western Europe experienced a wave of church construction.

Many churches worldwide are of considerable historical, national, cultural, and architectural significance. Several are included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Etymology

Cyrican is an Old English word for churches and church property

The word church is derived from Old English cirice, 'place of assemblage set aside for Christian worship', from the Common Germanic word kirika. This was probably borrowed via Gothic from Ancient Greek kyriakon doma, 'the Lord's (house)', from kyrios, 'ruler, lord'. Kyrios in turn comes from the Indo-European root *ḱewh₁-, meaning 'to spread out, to swell' (euphemistically: 'to prevail, to be strong').

The word's cognates in many languages reflect its transmission from Greek and Proto-Indo-European roots. In early Germanic languages such as Old High German, the term became kirihha, signaling how Christianization shaped local vocabulary. Early Christian communities used the word to stress a building's dedication to God.

The Greek kyriakon, 'of the Lord', has been used of houses of Christian worship since c. AD 300, especially in the East, although it was less common in this sense than ekklesia or basilike.

History

The history of church buildings traces the transformation of Christian worship spaces from clandestine house churches in the Roman Empire to monumental basilicas after legalization in 313 with the Edict of Milan, when imperial patronage and civic basilica forms were adapted to liturgical needs. During the 10th to 12th centuries, the Romanesque period emphasized thick masonry walls, barrel and groin vaults, and round arches, followed in the 12th to 16th centuries by Gothic architecture, which developed pointed arches, rib vaults, and flying buttresses to achieve greater height and light. From the 15th century, Renaissance architecture revived classical orders, symmetry, and proportional systems, and in the 17th to 18th centuries Baroque architecture and Rococo churches used theatrical space, integrated decoration, and urban scenography in response to varied patronage including the Counter-Reformation. After 1517 the Reformation fostered preaching-oriented halls and centralized plans in many Protestant regions, while the Orthodox East sustained and elaborated domed cross-in-square and other centralized schemes. Global expansion carried European models and local adaptations to the Americas, Africa, and Asia, and the 19th century saw widespread historic revivals. In the 20th century new materials, modernist minimalism, and liturgical reforms such as the Second Vatican Council of 1962 to 1965 reshaped altars, seating, and the relationship between clergy and laity.

Antiquity

South facade of the Church of Saint Simeon Stylites in Aleppo, Syria, is considered to be one of the oldest surviving ruins of a church building in the world.

Further information: List of oldest church buildings

The earliest archeologically identified Christian church is a house church (domus ecclesiae), the Dura-Europos church, founded between 233 AD and 256 AD.

In the second half of the third century AD, the first purpose-built halls for Christian worship (aula ecclesiae) began to be constructed. Many of these structures were destroyed during the Diocletianic Persecution in the early 4th century. Even larger and more elaborate churches began to appear during the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great.

Medieval times

From the 11th through the 14th centuries, a wave of cathedral building and the construction of smaller parish churches occurred across Western Europe. Besides serving as a place of worship, the cathedral or parish church was frequently employed as a general gathering place by the communities in which they were located, hosting such events as guild meetings, banquets, mystery plays, and fairs. Church grounds and buildings were also used for the threshing and storage of grain.

Romanesque architecture

Trier Cathedral, Germany

Between 1000 and 1200, the Romanesque style became popular across Europe. The Romanesque style is defined by large and bulky edifices typically composed of simple, compact, sparsely decorated geometric structures. Frequent features of the Romanesque church include circular arches, round or octagonal towers, and cushion capitals on pillars. In the early Romanesque era, coffering on the ceiling was fashionable, while later in the same era, groined vaults gained popularity. Interiors widened, and the motifs of sculptures took on more epic traits and themes. Romanesque architects adopted many Roman or early Christian architectural ideas, such as a cruciform ground plan, as that of Angoulême Cathedral, and the basilica system of a nave with a central vessel and side aisles.

Gothic architecture

The Cathedral of Ani, one of the founders of the Gothic style of architecture

The Frauenkirche in Munich is a largely Gothic, medieval church.

The Gothic style emerged around 1140 in Île-de-France and subsequently spread throughout Europe. Gothic churches lost the compact qualities of the Romanesque era, and decorations often contained symbolic and allegorical features. The first pointed arches, rib vaults, and buttresses began to appear, all possessing geometric properties that reduced the need for large, rigid walls to ensure structural stability. This also permitted the size of windows to increase, producing brighter and lighter interiors. Nave ceilings rose, and pillars and steeples heightened. Many architects used these developments to push the limits of structural possibility – an inclination that resulted in the collapse of several towers whose designs had unwittingly exceeded the boundaries of soundness. In Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, it became popular to build hall churches, a style in which every vault would be built to the same height.

Gothic cathedrals were lavishly designed, as in the Romanesque era, and many share Romanesque traits. Bagneux Church, France (1170–1190) exhibited both styles - a Romanesque tower, and Gothic nave and choir. Several also exhibit unprecedented degrees of detail and complexity in decoration. Notre-Dame de Paris and Reims Cathedral in France, as well as the church of San Francesco d'Assisi in Palermo, Salisbury Cathedral and the wool churches in England, and Santhome Church in Chennai, India, show the elaborate stylings characteristic of Gothic cathedrals.

Some of the most well-known gothic churches remained unfinished for centuries after the style fell out of popularity. One such example is the construction of Cologne Cathedral, which began in 1248, was halted in 1473, and did not resume until 1842.

Renaissance

San Giorgio Monastery, Venice

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the changes in ethics and society due to the Renaissance and the Reformation also influenced the building of churches. The common style was much like the Gothic style but simplified. The basilica was not the most popular type of church anymore, but instead, hall churches were built. Typical features are columns and classical capitals.

The construction of the Sistine Chapel with its uniquely important decorations and the entire rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica, one of Christendom's most significant churches, were part of this process. In the wealthy Republic of Florence, the impetus for church-building was more civic than spiritual. The unfinished state of the enormous Florence Cathedral dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary did no honour to the city under her patronage. However, as the technology and finance were found to complete it, the rising dome did credit not only to the Virgin Mary, its architect and the Church, but also to the Signoria, the Guilds and the sectors of the city from which the manpower to construct it was drawn. The dome inspired further religious works in Florence.

In Protestant churches, where the proclamation of God's Word is of particular importance, the visitor's line of sight is directed towards the pulpit.

Baroque architecture

Central nave of the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Vilnius, Lithuania, an example of a Baroque church interior

The Baroque style was first used in Italy around 1575. From there, it spread to the rest of Europe and the European colonies. The building industry increased heavily during the Baroque era. Buildings, even churches, were used to indicate wealth, authority, and influence. The use of forms known from the Renaissance was extremely exaggerated. Domes and capitals were decorated with moulding, and the former stucco sculptures were replaced by fresco paintings on the ceilings. For the first time, churches were seen as one connected work of art, and consistent artistic concepts were developed. Instead of long buildings, more central-plan buildings were created. The sprawling decoration with floral ornamentation and mythological motives lasted until about 1720, in the Rococo era.

The Protestant parishes preferred Protestant churches often prioritize proximity between worshippers, the nave (main worship space), and the altar (often called a communion table). This is achieved through various architectural designs and practices, including moving the altar loser to the congregation, decreasing the distance between the entrance and altar, and employing simpler architectural styles that focus attention on the pulpit and communion table.

Architecture

Main article: Church architecture

The view of the spire of Norwich Cathedral from the cloisters, in Norfolk, England

Church architecture developed from house churches and repurposed halls into purpose-built basilicas after the Edict of Milan in 313 and the establishment of Nicene Christianity as the imperial state religion in 380, and in the Byzantine East it soon embraced domed centralized schemes culminating in the cross-in-square type by the ninth to tenth centuries. In Western Europe the Romanesque of about 1000 to 1150 consolidated stone vaulting, thick walls, and modular planning, and from the 1140s the Gothic system of pointed arches, rib vaults, and flying buttresses enabled taller naves and luminous clerestories that transformed liturgical space. From the 15th to the 18th centuries, Renaissance designers reasserted classical orders and centralized ideals, the Reformation simplified imagery and organized Protestant interiors around the pulpit and congregational audibility, and the Catholic Counter-Reformation after the Council of Trent (1545 to 1563) promoted axial clarity and ceremonial focus across Europe and in Iberian colonial churches. Since the 19th century, revival styles and industrial materials have broadened the available language of design, and in the 20th century the Liturgical Movement and the Second Vatican Council (1962 to 1965) reshaped Catholic layouts toward active participation, while modernist experiments reframed light, structure, and community.

The architectural design of Christian churches commonly incorporates symbolic elements that reflect theological and liturgical meaning. The cruciform plan, with a long central nave intersected by transepts, represents the Christian cross and remains one of the most widespread church layouts. Churches frequently feature domed or vaulted ceilings that draw the eye upward toward heaven. Alternative geometric plans include circular designs symbolizing eternity, or octagonal forms representing the church's role in illuminating the world. Most churches include a prominent spire or tower, typically positioned at the western end or crossing, which serves both practical and symbolic functions.

The orientation of churches traditionally follows specific principles, with the main altar typically facing east toward sunrise. This eastward alignment originated in fourth-century Byzantium and became standard practice in Western churches during the eighth and ninth centuries. Historical variations existed, particularly in early Roman churches where western-facing altars remained common through the eleventh century. Notable examples of western altar orientation persisted in prominent German churches including Bamberg Cathedral, Augsburg Cathedral, Regensburg Cathedral, and Hildesheim Cathedral.

Types

Basilica

Main article: Basilica

Further information: Minster (church)

St. Peter's Basilica, completed in 1626, is the largest church building by interior volume (227,070 m³) and a principal basilica of the Catholic Church.

The St. John's Cathedral ('s-Hertogenbosch) in the Netherlands. On June 22, 1929, St. John's was given the honorary title of basilica because of the special veneration of Our Lady of Den Bosch.

The Latin word basilica was initially used to describe a Roman public building usually located in the forum of a Roman town. After the Roman Empire became officially Christian, the term came by extension to refer to a large and influential church that has been given special ceremonial rights by the Pope. The word thus retains two senses today, one architectural and the other ecclesiastical.

Cathedral

Main articles: Cathedral, Duomo, and Architecture of cathedrals and great churches

Florence Cathedral

A cathedral is a church, usually Catholic, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox or Eastern Orthodox, that houses the seat of a bishop. The word cathedral comes from cathedra, the bishop's throne in . The term is sometimes applied more broadly to any church of great size, although that usage is imprecise.

A church with a cathedral function is not necessarily a large building. It might be as small as Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, England, Porvoo Cathedral in Porvoo, Finland, Sacred Heart Cathedral in Raleigh, United States, or Chur Cathedral in Switzerland. However, frequently, the cathedral, along with some of the abbey churches, was the largest building in any region.

Cathedrals often showcase ambitious architectural design and the work of accomplished craftsmen. They carry significant ecclesiastical and civic status that parish churches rarely attain. Many are celebrated as notable works of architecture.

Chapel

Main article: Chapel

Further information: Chapel of ease and Sistine Chapel

Cappella Palatina, Palermo, Sicily

A chapel may be a discrete space with an altar inside a larger cathedral, conventual, parish, or other church. It can also be a freestanding small church building or room not connected to a larger church, created to serve a particular hospital, school, university, prison, private household, palace, castle, or other institution. Proprietary churches and small conventual churches are often described with this term.

Collegiate church

Main article: Collegiate church

A collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons, which may be presided over by a dean or provost. Collegiate churches were often supported by extensive lands held by the church, or by tithe income from appropriated benefices. They commonly provide distinct spaces for congregational worship and for the choir offices of their clerical community.

Conventual church

Further information: Abbey, Priory, and Katholikon

A conventual church (in Eastern Orthodoxy katholikon) is the main church in a Christian monastery or convent, known variously as an abbey, a priory, a friary, or a preceptory.

Parish church

Main article: Parish Church

Further information: Parish and Clergy house

St Margarete Parish Church, Berndorf, Austria

A parish church is a church built to meet the needs of people localised in a geographical area called a parish. The vast majority of Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran church buildings fall into this category. A parish church may also be a basilica, a cathedral, a conventual or collegiate church, or a place of pilgrimage. The vast majority of parish churches do not however enjoy such privileges.

In addition to a parish church, each parish may maintain auxiliary organizations and their facilities such as a rectory, parish hall, parochial school, or convent, frequently located on the same campus or adjacent to the church.

Pilgrimage church

Main article: Pilgrimage church

A pilgrimage church is a church to which pilgrimages are regularly made, or a church along a pilgrimage route, often located at the tomb of a saints, or holding icons or relics to which miraculous properties are ascribed, the site of Marian apparitions, etc.

Proprietary church

Main article: Proprietary church

During the Middle Ages, a proprietary church was a church, abbey, or cloister built on the private grounds of a feudal lord, over which he retained proprietary interests.

Evangelical church structures

Lakewood Church

The architecture of evangelical places of worship is mainly characterized by its sobriety. The Latin cross is a well known Christian symbol that can usually be seen on the building of an evangelical church and that identifies the place's belonging. Some services take place in theaters, schools or multipurpose rooms, rented for Sunday only. There is usually a baptistery at the front of the church (in what is known as the chancel in historic traditions) or in a separate room for baptisms by immersion.

A church in which more than 2,000 people gather each Sunday is known as a megachurch. The term gigachurch is sometimes used to refer to especially large megachurches, such as Lakewood Church (United States) or Yoido Full Gospel Church (South Korea).

House church

Main article: House church

A house church in Shunyi, Beijing

In some countries of the world which apply sharia or communism, government authorizations for worship are complex for Christians. Because of persecution of Christians, Evangelical house churches have thus developed. For example, there is the Evangelical house churches in China movement. The meetings thus take place in private houses, in secret and in "illegality".

Alternative buildings

Further information: Road church and Simultaneum

Old and disused church buildings can be seen as an interesting proposition for developers as the architecture and location often provide for attractive homes or city centre entertainment venues. On the other hand, many newer churches have decided to host meetings in public buildings such as schools, universities, cinemas or theatres.

There is another trend to convert old buildings for worship rather than face the construction costs and planning difficulties of a new build. Unusual venues in the UK include a former tram power station, a former bus garage, a former cinema and bingo hall, a former Territorial Army drill hall, and a former synagogue. HMS Tees served as a floating church for mariners at Liverpool from 1827 until she sank in 1872. A windmill has also been converted into a church at Reigate Heath.

There have been increased partnerships between church management and private real estate companies to redevelop church properties into mixed uses. While it has garnered criticism, the partnership allows congregations to increase revenue while preserving the property.

Inter-religious conversion

See also: List of former mosques in Spain, List of former mosques in Portugal, and Christianized sites

"Santa Maria Rotonda" (Pantheon)

A number of Roman temples have been converted to churches including the Pantheon temple in Rome which was converted into a church dedicated to St. Mary and the Martyrs in the 7th century, also known as "Santa Maria Rotonda".

The Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba in Spain, built in 785, was converted into a cathedral in 1236.

Mosques have also been converted for use by other religions, notably in southern Spain, following the conquest of the Moors in 1492. The most prominent of them is the Great Mosque of Cordoba, itself constructed on the site of a church demolished during the period of Muslim rule. Palma Cathedral in Palma de Mallorca was converted into a church after the mosque in its site was demolished, The Mosque of Cristo de la Luz in Toledo, Spain was converted into a church around 1187, Outside of the Iberian Peninsula, such instances also occurred in southeastern Europe once regions were no longer under Muslim rule, like the Seven Saints Church, in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The Aramean temple in Damascus, Syria, which became a Roman temple of Jupiter was later converted into the church of St. John in the 4th century, the site was then bought by Umayyad caliph Al-Walid I in 705 and the church was demolished and the Umayyad Mosque was built on the site.

Geographical distribution

Church of the Holy Sepulchre is considered the most important church in all of Christendom.

With the exception of Saudi Arabia and the Maldives, all sovereign states and dependent territories worldwide have church buildings. Among countries with a church, Afghanistan has the fewest churches globally, featuring only one official church: the Our Lady of Divine Providence Chapel in Kabul. Somalia follows closely, having once housed the Mogadishu Cathedral, along with the Saint Anthony of Padua Church in Somaliland. Other countries with a limited number of churches include Bhutan and Western Sahara.

The exterior outlines of St Martin-in-the-Fields (London, 1720), tall front steeple above pitched roof and rectangle, popularized a template for many church buildings in North America and beyond

Estimates suggest that the United States has about 380,000 churches, the highest total worldwide, followed by Brazil and Italy. Across Europe, more than 500,000 churches form part of the continent's cultural heritage. Several cities are commonly known as the "City of Churches" because of their dense concentration of church buildings. Examples include Adelaide, Ani, Ayacucho, Kraków, Moscow, Montreal, Naples, Ohrid, Prague, Puebla, Querétaro, Rome, Salzburg, and Vilnius. Rome and New York City are frequently cited as having the largest number of churches of any cities worldwide.

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the largest church in the world

Saudi Arabia, which has about 1.5 million Christians, prohibits the construction of churches. The country does preserve the remnants of the fourth-century Jubail Church, affiliated with the Church of the East. Discovered in 1986 and excavated in 1987 by the Saudi Antiquities Department, the site remained unpublished as of 2008 because of sensitivities regarding non-Islamic artifacts. The Maldives, home to about 1,400 Christians, also bans church construction, though foreign Christian workers may worship privately. Despite these prohibitions, both countries host secret home churches.

Christianity is the world's largest and most widespread religion, with over 2.3 billion followers. Churches are found across all seven continents, which are Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Oceania. Antarctica is home to eight churches, with two additional churches located south of the Antarctic Convergence.

Beyond their liturgical role, many churches serve as historical, national, cultural, and architectural landmarks, and numerous examples appear on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites register. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia the Cenacle (the site of the Last Supper) in Jerusalem was the "first Christian church". The Dura-Europos church in Syria is the oldest surviving church building in the world. Several authors have cited the Etchmiadzin Cathedral (Armenia's mother church) as the oldest cathedral in the world.

See also

• Dedication
• List of largest church buildings
• Pub church
• Shrine
• Tabernacle (Methodist)
• Temple

Bibliography

• Burns, Ross (2005), Damascus: A History, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-27105-3
• Levy, Patricia (2004). Cathedrals and the Church. Medieval World. North Mankato, MN: Smart Apple Media. ISBN 1-58340-572-0.
• Krieger, Herman (1998). Churches ad hoc. PhotoZone Press. ISBN 9780966580969.
• MacDonald, William L. (1976). The Pantheon: Design, Meaning, and Progeny. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674010191.
• Erlande-Brandenburg, Alain, Qu'est-ce qu'une église ?, Gallimard, Paris, 333 p., 2010.
• Gendry Mickael, L'église, un héritage de Rome, Essai sur les principes et méthodes de l'architecture chrétienne, Religions et Spiritualité, collection Beaux-Arts architecture religion, édition Harmattan 2009, 267 p.

External links

• New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia – Ecclesiastical Buildings
• New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia – The Church
• Prairie Churches Documentary produced by Prairie Public Television
• Iowa Places of Worship Documentary produced by Iowa Public Television
• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Ecclesiastical Buildings" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.