A crossing, in ecclesiastical architecture, is the junction of the four arms of a cruciform (cross-shaped) church.
In a typically oriented church (especially of Romanesque and Gothic styles), the crossing gives access to the nave on the west, the transept arms on the north and south, and the choir, as the first part of the chancel, on the east.
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A flèche (French: [flɛʃ] ; French for 'arrow') is the name given to spires in Gothic architecture. In French, the word is applied to any spire, but in English it has the technical meaning of a spirelet or spike on the rooftop of a building. In particular, the spirelets often were built atop the crossings of major churches in mediaeval French Gothic architecture are called flèches.
On the ridge of the roof on top of the crossing (the intersection of the nave and the transepts) of a church, flèches were typically light, delicate, timber-framed constructions with a metallic sheath of lead or copper. They are often richly decorated with architectural and sculptural embellishments: tracery, crockets, and miniature buttresses serve to adorn the flèche.
A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") churches, particularly within the Romanesque and Gothic traditions of Christian church architecture, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave. Each half of a transept is known as a semitransept.
The Church of the Gesù (Italian: Chiesa del Gesù, pronounced [ˈkjɛːza del dʒeˈzu]), officially named Chiesa del Santissimo Nome di Gesù (English: Church of the Most Holy Name of Jesus), is a church located at Piazza del Gesù in the Pigna rione of Rome, Italy. It is the mother church of the Society of Jesus (best known as Jesuits). With its façade, described as "the first truly baroque façade", the church served as a model for innumerable Jesuit churches all over the world, especially in Central Europe and in Portuguese colonies. Its paintings in the nave, crossing, and side chapels became models for art in Jesuit churches throughout Italy and Europe, as well as those of other orders. The Church of the Gesù is one of the great 17th-century preaching churches built by Counter-Reformation orders like the Jesuits in the Centro Storico of Rome – the others being Sant'Ignazio, also of the Jesuits, San Carlo ai Catinari of the Barnabites, Sant'Andrea della Valle of the Theatines, and the Chiesa Nuova of the Oratorians.
First conceived in 1551 by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the Spanish founder of the Society of Jesus active during the Protestant Reformation and the subsequent Catholic Counter-Reformation, the Gesù was also the home of the Superior General of the Society of Jesus until the wide suppression of the order in 1773. The church having been subsequently regained by the Jesuits, the adjacent palazzo is now a residence for Jesuit scholars from around the world studying at the Gregorian University in preparation for ordination to the priesthood.
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine (sometimes referred to as St. John's and also nicknamed St. John the Unfinished) is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. It is at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, between West 110th Street (also known as Cathedral Parkway) and West 113th Street.
The cathedral is an unfinished building, with only two-thirds of the proposed building completed, due to several major stylistic changes, work interruptions, and unstable ground on the site. The original design, in the Byzantine Revival and Romanesque Revival styles, began construction in 1892. After the opening of the crossing in 1909, the overall plan was changed to a Gothic Revival design. The completion of the nave was delayed until 1941 due to various funding shortfalls, and little progress has occurred since then, except for an addition to the tower at the nave's southwest corner. After a large fire damaged part of the cathedral in 2001, it was renovated and rededicated in 2008. The towers above the western elevation of the facade, as well as the southern transept and a proposed steeple above the crossing, have not been completed.
The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo is an art museum in Siena, in Tuscany in central Italy. It houses works of art and architectural fragments that were formerly in, or a part of, the Duomo of Siena (Siena Cathedral). These include a number of Italian Gothic sculptures by Giovanni Pisano and his school from the façade of the cathedral; the Maestà of Duccio di Boninsegna, which was the cathedral's altarpiece in the crossing beneath the dome from about 1311 until 1505 or 1506;, works by Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti (14th ct.), as well as Donatello's Madonna del Perdono (1457) There are also works moved to the museum from other churches in the area, such as the Madonna of Duccio brought from the Pieve di Santa Cecilia at Crevole in the comune of Murlo.
The Great Saint Martin Church (German: Groß Sankt Martin, mostly shortened to Groß St. Martin, pronounced [ˈɡʁoːs ˌzaŋkt ˈmaʁtiːn] or [- maʁˈtiːn] ; Kölsch: Jruhß Zint Määtes [ˈjʁús ˌtsɪ̂nt ˈmɛ́ːtəs] ) is a Romanesque Catholic church in Cologne, Germany. Its foundations (c. 960 AD) rest on remnants of a Roman chapel, built on what was then an island in the Rhine. The church was later transformed into a Benedictine monastery. The current buildings, including a soaring crossing tower that is a landmark of Cologne's Old Town, were erected between 1150–1250. The architecture of its eastern end forms a triconch or trefoil plan, consisting of three apses around the crossing, similar to that at St. Maria im Kapitol. The church was badly damaged in World War II; restoration work was completed in 1985.
As of 2009 Great Saint Martin is being used by a branch of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem and is open for visits again.