Most cathedrals and great church buildings have a cruciform groundplan

Plenty of of the earliest church buildings of Byzantium have a longitudinal plan. At Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, there is a central dome, frame on axis by high semi-domes and on the other by low rectangular transept arms, the general plan being square. This large church was to influence the building of plenty of later church buildings, even in to the 21st century. A square plan in which the nave, chancel and transept arms are of equal length forming a Greek cross, the crossing usually surmounted by a dome became the common form in the Orthodox Church, with plenty of church buildings throughout Eastern Europe and Russia being built in this way. Church buildings of the Greek Cross form often have a narthex or hall which stretches across the front of the church. This type of plan was also to later play a part in the development of church architecture in Western Europe, most notably in Bramante's plan for St. Peter's Basilica.

Most cathedrals and great church buildings have a cruciform groundplan. In church buildings of Western European custom, the plan is usually longitudinal, in the type of the so-called Latin Cross with a long nave crossed by a transept. The transept may be as strongly projecting as at York Minster or not project beyond the aisles as at Amiens Cathedral.


As described above, all of cathedrals & great church buildings are cruciform in shape with the church having a defined axis. The axis is usually east/west with outside emphasis on the west front, normally the main entrance, & internal emphasis on the eastern finish so that the congregation faces the direction of the approaching of Christ. Because it is also the direction of the rising sun, the architectural features of the east finish often focus on enhancing interior illumination by the sun. Not every church or cathedral maintains a strict east/west axis, but even in those that do not, the terms East Finish & West Front are used.[10] Plenty of church buildings of Rome, notably St Peter's Basilica, face the opposite direction.


The majority of cathedrals and large church buildings of the Western European custom have a high wide nave with a lower aisle separated by an arcade on either side. Occasionally the aisles are as high as the nave, forming a hall church. Plenty of cathedrals have aisles on either side. Notre Dame de Paris has aisles and a row of chapels.

In the case of a centrally planned church, the major axis is that between the main door and the altar.

There is usually a prominent outside feature that rises upwards. It could be a dome, a central tower, western towers or towers at both ends as at Speyer Cathedral. The towers may be done with pinnacles or spires or a small dome.


The transept forms the arms of the church building. In English cathedrals of monastic foundation there's often transepts. The intersection where the nave and transept meet is called the crossing and is often surmounted by a small spire called a flèche, a dome or, in England, a large tower with or without a spire.