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Orientation of Christian Churches

2014; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_173

Stephen C. McCluskey,

Ancient Egypt and Archaeology

The orientation of Christian churches reflects the historically documented concepts that one should turn eastward to pray and the architectural and liturgical principle that temples and churches should be constructed facing east (often specified as equinoctial east). Since many churches do not face equinoctial east, various attempts have been made to explain this deviation. Among them are the idea that those churches were incorrectly built or that they were oriented toward sunrise on the date their foundation was laid or on the feast or the saint to whom the church was dedicated.