Hall church

A hall church is a church with nave and side aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was first coined in the mid-19th century by the pioneering German art historian Wilhelm Lübke.

In contrast to a traditional basilica of the Roman Catholic Church, which lets in light through a clerestory in the upper part of the nave, a hall church is lit through windowed side walls typically spanning the full height of the interior.

This form of church construction has a long history (for example Bishop Meinwerk's Bartholomäuskapelle at Paderborn which was consecrated c.1017) but reached its height in the late Gothic period, especially in German Sondergotik, and most notably in the areas of Westphalia and upper Saxony. The design also found favour in the Angevin lands of western France (for example, Poitiers Cathedral) and a notable example in Bristol Cathedral, England. Elsewhere, one also finds the hall-church design adapted to smaller-scale projects such as chapels or retrochoirs (e.g. Salisbury Cathedral, Temple Church, London)

Some Gothic Revival churches imitate the hall church model, particularly those following German architectural precedents. One example of a neo-Gothic hall church is St. Francis de Sales Church in Saint Louis, Missouri, designed by Viktor Klutho and completed in 1908.

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