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Galleries, porches and crypts

of it which still exist are enough to shew that the plan was a very accurate copy of its prototype, so much so, that it appears that Norman workmen must have been brought here to do it. The same tradition was followed at Durham, Lincoln, and many other important churches. Both Westminster and Jumièges had vestibules and triforium storeys; these were old customary features which tended to disappear. Charlemagne's church at Aix has a fine vaulted gallery over the aisle which surrounds the central space; and we are told of the Confessor's church at Westminster that there were, both above and below, chapels dedicated to the saints. In such cases the triforium evidently fulfilled a function. Later it became a mere formal survival, although the triforium of the later church at Westminster was probably used for the great congregations at coronations. Many of the German Romanesque churches have structural galleries at the sides of the choir, and many Norman churches had galleries at the ends of the transepts. At Canterbury, Lincoln and Christ Church the transepts seem to have had upper storeys over their whole extent, forming chapels. Vestibules mentioned above must represent the narthex of Eastern churches. The church of St Remi at Rheims had in the tenth century a vaulted work which occupied nearly half the nave. Immense vaulted porches still exist at Vézelay, St Benoît-sur-Loire and other places, and the tradition of a western porch has left its mark on some of the English Romanesque churches, as Ely and Lincoln. In Germany the western bay was usually carried up higher than the nave roof between two western towers, making thus an impressive west end externally.

Quite generally crypts were also constructed beneath the choirs of Romanesque churches; deriving from the early confessio beneath the altar, they frequently became of great size. Often, in the German and Lombard churches, they were but little buried in the ground, but the eastern limbs of the churches were raised high above them, and approached by many steps. This arrangement is often very dignified and impressive. A great seven-branched candlestick usually stood in the middle of the platform beyond the steps. Many of the German Romanesque churches had rounded ends to the transepts as well as to the eastern limb, the crossing being thus surrounded by three apsidal projections. This is a well-known Byzantine type, and St Mary in the Capitol at Cologne is an early and noble example in the West; Tournai cathedral is another. This form of plan was handed on to the early Gothic of North France, at Noyon and Soissons, and it persisted long in Germany. The thirteenth century church at Marburg has similar semi-octagonal apses in three directions, a short nave, no longer than the transepts, and a chapel at each of the four re-entering angles. It is practically a church of the central type, and is certainly a very beautiful plan.

Another very beautiful scheme of planning is found in a church at Angers, which has a wide vaulted nave extended and supported by a