What is the choir of a church ?

From the Latin “chorus”, song for several voices and from the Greek “khoros”, the chorus of the tragedy, the choir is the area reserved for the officiating priests and the members of the choir. It often is separated from the nave by one “choir-wall”, a platform from where the priest addresses the faithful. The central part of the choir, the most raised, forms a semicircular “apse” reserved for the clerks, surrounded by the “ambulatory”, a circulating corridor allowing the faithful to get to the crypt or the side chapels without going through the sanctuary. It is usually perforated with “chapels”, each with its own altar. The word originally referred to the coat with a hood, the “capella”, of St Martin.

In Tournai

The cathedral’s choir is an expression of Gothic architecture in all its glory via abundant lighting and an audacious verticality that was almost fatal for it: 58 metres long and 36 metres high under the keystone. Triple nave of six narrow bays, the choir ends in a heptagonal apse. Behind, the ambulatory is perforated with shallow chapels. In the centre, the sanctuary is dominated by the marble altar (1727) coming from St Martin's Abbey. Upstairs, the triforium allows light into each bay by two quatrefoils perforating the back wall.

It’s said that…

On the ground floor of the St John’s Tower, the pilgrims’ calefactory accommodated passing pilgrims and faithful authorised to spend the night in the cathedral and to practise “incubation” in it, which was rest close to the relics in order to be impregnated by their virtues and to be associated on earth with their celestial glory.