Ambulatory

As ambulatory or (de-) clinic (from the Latin ambulare = go ) is the component of a traditional church building in the Christian West called, in continuation of the aisles of the transept arms of time ( if any) is placed around the choir around. Dealing appears as a running around the apse and the choir bays gallery of mostly lean stilted arches (with prolonged downward ends ) on pillars. Ambulatories were especially popular with pilgrims churches, such as stations on the road to Santiago de Compostela

Ambulatories usually possessed liturgical functions in which they were used as a procession passage of the clergy and acolytes. In historic pilgrimage churches to be able to go out on the opposite side of the ship again served beyond the processions often numerous in the Middle Ages pilgrims who entered one of the aisles, then to the choir around and. In this case, they went often pass numerous issued on altars in chapels relics, to whose worship they had come. Not least, these have contributed to the generosity of the pilgrims.

Ambulatories are almost always in a structural unit with a radial sequence ( along the radius ) to meet chapels, which are also referred to as chapels. The number of bands is different and depends on the size of the chevet. They often hold each other more or less wide gaps where the outer wall is dealing piecewise visible and in which individual windows are usually spared. In other cases they encounter directly against each other, such as the Cologne Cathedral.

Ambulatories were covered in their design with the then usual vaults.

In the Roman period, it was initially the continuously rotating barrel vault. At the openings of the arches of the choir, the chapels and possibly the window in the chapel spaces included in a radial arrangement of short transverse tons, the so-called lunettes. These lunettes blend with the main vault of dealing in parabolic ridges (example: Notre- Dame de Châtel -Montagne ).

Likewise classified in the Romanesque are circulating groin vault. The rectangular fields vault over the choir Jochen be divided by diagonal ridges in isosceles triangles. The fields opposite the rounding of the apse have polygonal outlines, with diagonal ridges with highly distorted triangles. The vaults fields are also not separated by parallel ridges by transverse arches, but, as with St-Etienne de Nevers or Notre -Dame- du- Port de Clermont -Ferrand.

The ambulatories in the Gothic period are strongly represented are covered by ribbed vaults, such as the Cologne Cathedral.