Gallery,

Gallery, a word with several applications in architecture. A long passage or corridor is called a gallery. A long room, such as is frequently used for exhibiting pictures; a raised floor in any apartment, supported on pillars; a long passage in the thickness of the wall, or supported on cantilevers (as the Whispering Gallery of St Pauls)—all these are called galleries. They were of frequent use in the buildings of the middle ages. The Rood-loft (see ROOD) is a gallery running across a church at the entrance to the choir, and supporting a large cross. Organ galleries are also frequent, either in the position of the rood-loft, or at one end of the nave or transept, or corbelled out from the side-wall. In old baronial halls the end next the door was usually screened off as an entrance passage, and above the screen was almost invariably a gallery for musicians. In Scottish castles such a gallery was frequently constructed in the thickness of the wall. In the older German and French churches the side-aisles were divided into two stories—the upper forming a gallery said to be for the exclusive use of the women. The arrangement of galleries in tiers one over the other, now so much used in churches, theatres, &c., is entirely modern, dating from the 17th century. For galleries in the military and mining connection, see MINES.