Chapter house

This article is about church architecture. For the Navajo administrative meeting place, see Chapter house (Navajo Nation).

The Chapterhouse at Lincoln Cathedral. Note the flying buttresses surrounding the building.

Library of Parliament in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room attached to a cathedral or collegiate church in which meetings are held. They can also be found in medieval monasteries.

When part of a monastery, the chapter house is generally located on the eastern wing of the cloister. It comprises a large space, in order to hold all the monks of the monastery, and is often highly ornamented. In some Romanesque or Gothic monasteries, the entrance to the chapter house constitutes a veritable façade in miniature, with a door surrounded by highly decorated archivolts.

The community of monks would meet in the chapter house with the abbot to "hold chapter"; that is, to read aloud from the rule book and Bible and discuss matters concerning the monastery and its inhabitants.^[1] The meetings generally took place in the morning, after mass; the monks would sit along the length of the walls in strict age-order. At the end of the meeting the monks would publicly confess their sins or denounce others' (anonymously).

The side of the cloister on which the chapter house was located was usually the first to be constructed; it would have begun to be built shortly after the church’s frame was erected.

The chapter house of Canterbury cathedral

When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. When attached to a collegiate church, the dean, prebendaries and canons of the college meet there.

Examples of chapter houses can be seen at:

Romanesque chapter house of the Cistercians Abbey in Wąchock

The exquisitely detailed circular chapter house of York Minster

• Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze
• Convent of the Order of Christ in Tomar
• St Albans Abbey
• Beauchief Abbey
• Elgin Cathedral
• Westminster Abbey
• Exeter Cathedral
• Ithaca NY
• Gloucester Cathedral
• Lincoln Cathedral
• Margam Abbey
• Rievaulx Abbey
• Salisbury Cathedral
• Southwell Minster
• York Minster
• Wąchock Abbey

Non-religious use of the chapter house design:

• Library of Parliament, Parliament of Canada

References

1. ^  "Chapter House". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 

• This article draws heavily on the June 10, 2007 version of the corresponding article in the Spanish-language Wikipedia.

External links

• Historical Images of Chapter House at Westminster Abbey circa 1870 - 1990

This article related to a type of room in a building is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Cathedral architecture House types Architecture stubs Room stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую Ernst Torgler Strassen algorithm Look at other dictionaries: Chapter House — • A building attached to a monastery or cathedral in which the meetings of the chapter are held Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Chapter House     Chapter House      …   Catholic encyclopedia Chapter house — Chapter Chap ter, n. [OF. chapitre, F. chapitre, fr. L. capitulum, dim. of caput head, the chief person or thing, the principal division of a writing, chapter. See {Chief}, and cf, {Chapiter}.] 1. A division of a book or treatise; as, Genesis has …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English chapter house — chapter houses 1) N COUNT A chapter house is the building or set of rooms in the grounds of a cathedral where the members of the clergy hold their meetings. 2) N COUNT In a university or college, a chapter house is the place where a fraternity or …   English dictionary chapter house — n. 1. the place where a chapter, as of monks, meets ☆ 2. the house of a fraternity or sorority chapter …   English World dictionary Chapter-house — (engl., spr. tschäppter haus), Kapitelhaus, ein vier oder mehreckiger Anbau an englische Kathedralen, in dem sich das Domkapitel zu seinen Sitzungen zu versammeln pflegte …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon chapter house — chapter ,house noun count 1. ) AMERICAN a meeting place for students who are members of a FRATERNITY or SORORITY at a university 2. ) a building where the priests who work in a CATHEDRAL have meetings …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English chapter house — 1. Eccles. a building attached to or a hall forming part of a cathedral or monastery, used as a meeting place for the chapter. 2. a building used by a chapter of a society, fraternity, sorority, etc. [bef. 1150; ME chapitelhus, OE captelhus] * *… …   Universalium chapter house — noun Etymology: Middle English chapitre hous, from chapitre chapter + hous house 1. : a building, room, or suite of rooms where a chapter meets or transacts its business 2. : a meeting place or residence of a local chapter of a college fraternity …   Useful english dictionary chapter house — noun a) A building attached to a cathedral, church, or monastery and used as a meeting place. The cloister, and the chapter house adjoining to the church, are the finest here of any I have seen in England; the latter is octagon, or eight square,… …   Wiktionary chapter house — UK / US noun [countable] Word forms chapter house : singular chapter house plural chapter houses 1) a building where the priests who work in a cathedral have their meetings 2) American a meeting place for students who are members of a fraternity… …   English dictionary 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”