The transept of a church separates the nave from the
sanctuary,
apse,
choir,
chevet,
presbytery, or
chancel. The transepts cross the nave at the
crossing, which belongs equally to the main nave axis and to the transept. Upon its four
piers, the crossing may support a
spire (e.g.,
Salisbury Cathedral), a central
tower (e.g.,
Gloucester Cathedral) or a crossing
dome (e.g.,
St Paul's Cathedral). Since the
altar is usually located at the east end of a church, a transept extends to the north and south. The north and south end walls often hold decorated
windows of
stained glass, such as
rose windows, in stone
tracery. Occasionally, the
basilicas and the church and
cathedral planning that descended from them were built without transepts; sometimes the transepts were reduced to matched
chapels. More often, the transepts extended well beyond the sides of the rest of the building, forming the shape of a cross. This design is called a
Latin cross ground plan, and these extensions are known as the "arms" of the transept. A
Greek cross ground plan, with all four extensions the same length, produces a central-plan structure. When churches have only one transept, as at
Pershore Abbey, there is generally a historical disaster, fire, war or funding problem, to explain the anomaly. At
Beauvais only the chevet and transepts stand; the nave of the cathedral was never completed after a collapse of the daring high
vaulting in 1284. At
St. Vitus Cathedral,
Prague, only the choir and part of a southern transept were completed until a renewed building campaign in the 19th century. ,
Żejtun,
Malta ==Other senses of the word==