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Plan of Tewkesbury Abbey. The nave is coloured yellow and red. The crossing (red) is visually and liturgically part of the nave. Eliminating the rood screen visually extended the nave to the sanctuary.

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral and church architecture, the nave ( Medieval Latin navis, "ship," probably from the keel shape of its vaulting) is the central and principal part of a church, extending from the entry narthex to the chancel and flanked by lower aisles outside the nave area (plan, right). The height of the nave provided space for clerestory windows above the aisle roofs, which gave light to the interior. The architectural antecedents of this construction lay in the secular Roman basilica, a kind of covered stoa adjacent to a forumForum is a Latin word, currently used to indicate a place or a space for meeting or for trading. The original etymological meaning came from the verb ferre "to bring" as in the sense of goods that people bring to a market. Roman Forum Internet forum The F, where magistrates met and public business was transacted.

In Romanesque constructions, where a gallery was required to allow passage above the aisles, an addition to the elevation of the nave was inserted, called a triforiumTriforium is an architectural term. The origin of the term is unknown but probably derived from thoroughfarum as it was used as a passage from one end of the building to the other. The derivation from Latin tres three, and foris door, entrance, does not s. In later styles the triforium was eliminated, the aisles lowered and great expanses of stained glass took the place of the clerestory windows.

The nave, ecclesiastically considered, was the area reserved for the non-clergy (the "laity"), while the chancel or choir were reserved for the clergy, and a rood screenThe rood screen was a common feature in the late medieval English church, dividing the chancel from the nave its function being to separate the clergy from the laity. The word is derived from the Saxon word ‘roda’, meaning a cross. The screens are often h separated the sanctuary from the nave (see Cathedral diagram for details). PewA pew is a long bench used for seating of a church congregation. Churches were not commonly furnished with permanent pews before the coming of the Protestant Reformation. The rise of the sermon as a central act of Christian worship, especially in Protestas in the nave are a comparatively modern, Protestant innovation.

Some naves

• Longest nave: Cathedral of Saint John the DivineThe Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City is the seat of the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. Located at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue (between 110 Street (a. Cathedral Parkway") and 113 Street) on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City
• Longest nave in England: St Albans CathedralWhat is usually called St Albans Cathedral is actually The Cathedral and Abbey Church of St. It has the longest nave of any cathedral in England. England's first Christian martyr Saint Alban was a pagan living in the Roman city of Verulamium where St Alba (91 meter (300 feet), in thirteen arched bays) has been outdone by Liverpool CathedralLiverpool Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral built on St James Mount in the centre of Liverpool England. It is the seat of the Bishop of Liverpool. John Charles Ryle was installed as the first Bishop of Liverpool in 1880, but the diocese had no cathedral,
• Longest nave in France: Bourges (91 meter (300 feet), including choir where a crossing would be if there were transepts)
• Longest nave in Germany: Cologne cathedral (58 meter (190 feet), including two bays between the towers)
• Longest nave in Spain: Seville (60 meter (200 feet), in five bays)
• Longest nave in Italy: St Peters Basilica in Rome (91 meter (300 feet) in four bays)
  

• Highest vaulted nave: Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, 38 meter (124 feet) ( Beauvais is 46 meter (150 feet) high in the choir.)

See also:

• Cathedral architecture
• Abbey, with architectural discussion and groundplans