An independent field guide to church buildingsVisit Pass $1.95/month · Free during preview
Aisle & Apse Read the building

A field guide to church architecture

Read the building.

Nave or narthex? Gothic or Gothic Revival? Aisle & Apse names the parts of the building in front of you, tells you which style they add up to, and keeps a private notebook of the places you visit.

Find the style Browse 81 features
Cross-section of a vaulted building with a nave, two aisles and flying buttresses. Each label links to its feature. NAVE AISLE AISLE RoofPinnacleFlying buttressButtressAisleRib vaultClerestoryTriforiumArcadePierNave
Plate I. Cross-sectionTap any label to read about that part.

Three ways in

Everything in the guide is free to read. The notebook is where the Visit Pass comes in.

  1. I

    Name the parts

    81 features in five zones, from the portal to the apse, each with where to look and the styles it belongs to.

    Features
  2. II

    Find the style

    Answer eight questions about what you can see. The Style Finder ranks twelve styles and shows exactly which answers counted.

    Style Finder
  3. III

    Keep a notebook

    Log the buildings you visit, tick the features you spotted and watch your life list grow. Private link, no account, no email.

    Notebook

Walk in from the door

The usual order of spaces in a large traditional building, front to back. Each stop opens its page.

  1. Portal

    The door and its carved arches.

  2. Narthex

    The hall inside the doors.

  3. Nave

    The great central space.

  4. Clerestory

    The high windows overhead.

  5. Crossing

    Where the arms meet.

  6. Choir

    The stalls beyond.

  7. Apse

    The rounded far end.

Twelve styles

From Romanesque to Modern: dates, where you meet them, the tells, and how to tell look-alikes apart.

Romanesquec. 1000 to 1200 Gothicmid-1100s to 1500s Renaissance1400s to 1500s Baroquec. 1600 to 1750 Georgian and colonialc. 1714 to 1830 Greek Revival and Neoclassicalc. 1760s to 1860s (Greek Revival in the U.S. c. 1820s to 1850s) Gothic Revivalc. 1830s to 1930s Carpenter Gothicc. 1840s to 1900 Romanesque Revival and Richardsonianc. 1840s to 1900s (Richardsonian Romanesque in the U.S. c. 1880s to 1900) Byzantine and Byzantine RevivalByzantine: 500s to 1400s; Revival: c. 1880s to 1930s Spanish Colonial and Mission RevivalSpanish missions: 1600s to early 1800s; Mission Revival: c. 1890 to 1930 Modernc. 1920s onward (most U.S. examples after 1945)
Plan of a cross-shaped building from the west front (left) to the apse (right). Each label links to its feature. W E NarthexAisleTranseptAmbulatoryWest frontNaveArcade (piers)CrossingChoirApseChapels
Plate II. PlanWest front on the left, apse on the right.

Drawn for this guide

Every label is a link

Three original line drawings, a plan, a cross-section and a front, mark where each part sits. On any feature's page the drawing lights up that part.

See all three drawings

Architecture only: the guide names no particular building or congregation and carries no devotional content.

The Visit Pass

The guide and the Style Finder's top three are free for everyone. The Pass is for people who visit.

PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0All 81 features, the drawings, the twelve styles, the printable field sheet, the Style Finder's top three, and a notebook of up to 3 visits.
Visit Pass, monthly$1.95per monthNotebook of up to 500 visits with the life list, printed visit records and the whole notebook to print, CSV export, and the Style Finder's full ranking with every point explained.
Visit Pass, annual$19.50per yearThe same as monthly, for a year: two months free.
Day Pass$1.00once, 24 hoursEverything in the Visit Pass for 24 hours: for a day out or a single trip. No renewal.

Free during preview. Payments are not switched on yet, so every Visit Pass feature is open to everyone at no charge. The prices above are the ones that will apply once checkout opens; nothing is charged now and no payment details are asked for.