Cathedral Architecture and Design Quiz

Answer: Decorative arches built against a wall

Blind arcades in cathedrals are ornamental arches that have been built flat against a wall. They serve no purpose but to enhance the overall majesty and appearance of the structure. These can often be seen on the outside walls of cathedrals as well.

Answer: Traverse section at right angles to the cathedral main body

A transept section of a cathedral is part of the structure that juts out on either side of the main body of the cathedral and at right angles to it. It is a type of boundary that separates the main body of the church from other sections such as the sanctuary, the choir and clergy seating.

The transept also serves to give a shape in the form of a cross to the overall appearance of the cathedral.

Answer: Reading desk

Three-decker pulpits can be seen in many of the great English cathedrals and are often awe-inspiring fixtures. They're usually highly decorated, built above the heads of the congregation and often with a wooden canopy over the section where the senior officiating member of the clergy delivers a ringing sermon for the benefit of the parishioners.

The wooden canopy over the head of that speaker serves as a sounding board, allowing his voice to project further out over the body of the church. A three-decker pulpit is comprised of the lowest section for the cathedral clerk, the main section for the sermon giver - and the reading section for those lesser clergy members, or suitable lay members of the congregation, to give the various readings that occur throughout the service.

Answer: To store the consecrated sacraments of bread and wine

These consecrated sacraments represent the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Various faiths believe that these sacraments actually become that holy body and blood, while other faiths believe they are representations only. In cathedrals and churches, the tabernacle is usually a visible and ornamented, fixed and locked container in which these sacraments are stored, ready to be taken out, consecrated, and distributed to the congregation during the rites of Communion. Sitting and quietly contemplating a tabernacle can be a serene and peaceful feeling.

Some tabernacles are set back into a wall instead, where they are less obvious to the onlooker. In these case, they're referred to as aumbries.

Answer: To allow all parishioners a view of the altar

Also known as a hagioscope, a squint is an opening in the walls of a cathedral - usually those of the transept - to allow all parishioners a full view of the altar when the consecration and elevation of the host is being carried out. Apart from being placed into the walls of a transept, a squint can be placed anywhere in the design of these mighty buildings, where the altar could not be otherwise seen, to allow for a viewing of that sacred part of a church service.

Answer: Below the belfry

Sounds holes are openings with a design of open lace work type tracery placed over each one. These are normally placed below the belfry around the tower. Many people think their purpose is to allow the sound of the bells to ring out over a town or country side, but their true purpose is to ventilate the chambers below the belfry, and to allow more fresh air into the entire cathedral.

Answer: At the east end near the altar

The chancel is the space all around the central altar of a cathedral. Also known by many as the sanctuary, it is separated from the congregation by communion rails and the transepts, and includes the choir stalls in which sit members of the cathedral choir, and several recesses set into the walls in which the clergy sit.

These are known as sedilia. It usually terminates in a large semi-circular recess known as an apse.

Answer: To wash the sacred vessels used during communion

A piscina can also sometimes be located in the vestry (robing room) or the sacristy (a room in which to store robes, sacred vessels and written records), but in cathedrals it is more often than not set into a wall near the altar itself. It is used to wash the vessels used in the communion service, and then drained away by a pipe called a sacrarium, a word some members of the clergy use for both pipe and piscina.

The water used in the washing of these sacred vessels must be drained directly down into the earth. Failure to do this can result in stern penalties.

Answer: Nave

The nave comprises the main section of the cathedral, and the part in which the majority of parishioners sit, unless the cathedral is packed, something that rarely happens today. In those case though, the worshippers would flow into the transepts as well. One enters through the entrance of the cathedral into the nave, directly facing the sanctuary and the altar.

It ceases to be the nave at the communion rails, and, from that point, it becomes known as the chancel/sanctuary and altar - and finally the apse. Of course the altar is the heart and soul of the cathedral, glorious in its own right, but the nave with its height, its awe inspiring vaults and arches, its acoustics and beautiful wooden pews, its ornamentations and soaring windows - just magnificent.

Answer: Coat of arms of deceased people

The term hatchment was once used to represent the heraldic achievements of assorted noble families and knights, and still is of course, but in more recent times, it is used more in a funereal context than a living one. Dotted around the massive walls of many cathedrals, then, you will see these diamond shaped panels showing the coat of arms of deceased members of noble and aristocratic families who once played an important role, not only for their king and country, but also in the everyday life of their manors, churches and cathedrals - and in more recent times, the descendants of those noble families, whose role today is one more perhaps of symbolism, tradition and heritage rather than actual achievement.