What is the nave of a church?

From the Latin “navis" = ship, the nave indicates the longitudinal part of the church open to the faithful. It consists of one or more naves, delineated laterally by walls or columns and in height by a vault or a frame. In the middle there is the “central” nave, on the sides, the “collateral” ones, sometimes divided into “aisles” of less height surmounted by a “tribune” or gallery. These arrangements serve mainly to contain the oblique forces of the central nave’s vault and to light it. Originally, the walls were plastered and decorated with multicoloured drawings recounting scenes of the Bible for the attention of the faithful, usually illiterate.

In Tournai

Tournai Cathedral’s nave is striking because of its width, its purified horizontal lines and its harmonious proportions. In elevation, it is composed of four horizontal stages on nine bays. The columns of the bays are surmounted with heads usually with vegetal decoration, originally multicoloured. All different, they form a series of several hundred pieces, unique in Belgium. Until 1754, a flat multicoloured wooden ceiling, decorated with frets and rose windows, adorned the building. Decayed, it was replaced by brick vaults, which helped to save the building from a flashover during the bombardments of 1940.

It’s said that…

Just in front of the southern cross-brace construction of the transept, the head of the “falling man” would recall an accident that occurred in the course of the building. Unless it was quite simply a question of a workman in the process of relieving himself…