Weaponhouse

A church porch is a room-like structure at a church's main entrance. A porch protects from the weather to some extent. Some porches have an outer door, others a simple gate, and in some cases the outer opening is not closed in any way.

The porch at St Wulfram's Church, Grantham, like many others of the period, has a room above the porch. It once provided lodging for the priest, but now houses Francis Trigge Chained Library. Such a room is sometimes called a parvise although that word more normally means an open space or colonnade outside the entrance of a church.

In Scandinavia and Germany the porch of a church is often called by names meaning weaponhouse. Visitors stored their weapons there because of a prohibition against carrying weapons into the sanctuary, or into houses in general.

St Wulfram's Grantham, England: The church porch which houses the chained library

Church Porch with lattice gate, intended mainly to prevent birds nesting in the porch. St Guthlac, Little Ponton (England)

Billingshurst Church, England

Keutschach am See Church, Austria

Østerlars Church, Denmark

Large church porch at St Nicolas' Church, Rønne (Denmark)

Nederluleå Church, Sweden

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