Orientation

Orientation, in Architecture, is the position of a church so that its chancel shall point towards the east. This was a fashion invariably adopted in northern countries, but not adhered to in Italy and the south. St Peter's at Rome, for example, has the choir to the west, and the principal entrance towards the east. The orientation of churches is not usually very exactly to the east, and it is supposed that the east end in some cases has been set so as to point towards the place where the sun rises on the morning of the patron saint's day. In other cases the choir and nave are not built exactly in a straight line, the choir having thus a slight inclination to one side, which in the symbolism of the middle ages was supposed to indicate the bowing of our Saviour's head upon the cross. This departure from the line of the true east, however, in many instances arose more probably from carelessness or ignorance.