Cathedral oriented to the east. The arrow indicates the west front entrance.
The orientation of a building refers to the direction in which it is constructed and laid out, taking account of its planned purpose and ease of use for its occupants, its relation to the path of the sun and other aspects of its environment.[1] Within church architecture, orientation is an arrangement by which the point of main interest in the interior is towards the east (Latin: oriens). The east end is where the altar is placed, often within an apse. The façade and main entrance are accordingly at the west end.
The opposite arrangement, in which the church is entered from the east and the sanctuary is at the other end, is called occidentation.[2][3][4][5]
Since the eighth century most churches are oriented. Hence, even in the many churches where the altar end is not actually to the east, terms such as "east end", "west door", "north aisle" are commonly used as if the church were oriented, treating the altar end as the liturgical east.[6]
^CivilSeek, Orientation of Building and Rooms [A Complete Guide], accessed 12 May 2023
^Thomas Coomans, Life Inside the Cloister (Leuven University Press 2018), p. 28
^Noel Lenski, The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine (Cambridge University Press 2006), p. 290
^Marilyn Stokstad, Medieval Art (Routledge 2018)
^Roma Felix – Formation and Reflections of Medieval Rome, Éamonn Ó Carragáin, Carol Neuman de Vegvar, (Routledge 2016)
^"East" in Curl, James Stephens, Encyclopaedia of Architectural Terms, 1993, Donhead Publishing, ISBN 1873394047, 9781873394045
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