The Alignment and Location of Medieval Rural Churches
Hinton, Ian
It has been variously considered that churches faced east for liturgical reasons or reasons of Christian religious belief, that they faced Jerusalem, that they faced sunrise on the day that building work started, or that they faced sunrise on their patronal-saint's feast day, and, in the cases where nave and chancel were aligned differently, that this represented religious symbolism, etc. This study investigates the many reasons for alignment ...