A cross-window is a window whose lights are defined by a mullion and a

transom Transom may refer to: * Transom (architecture), a bar of wood or stone across the top of a door or window, or the window above such a bar * Transom (nautical), that part of the stern of a vessel where the two sides of its hull meet * Operation Tran ...

, forming a cross.Curl, James Stevens (2006). ''Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture'', 2nd ed., OUP, Oxford and New York, p. 214. . The

Late Gothic International Gothic is a period of Gothic art which began in Burgundy, France, and northern Italy in the late 14th and early 15th century. It then spread very widely across Western Europe, hence the name for the period, which was introduced by t ...

cross-window is known since the 14th century and replaced the hitherto common Romanesque or Gothic arched window on buildings. Since then the latter have almost exclusively been reserved for

church building A church, church building or church house is a building used for Christian worship services and other Christian religious activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 and 256. From the 11th thro ...

s. The two, upper lights were usually somewhat smaller than the two lower ones and could be opened separately. The latter is also true for a transom window, which has a horizontal bar or

separating the lights.

Design

Characteristically the rectangular window is divided into four individual lights by a mullion and transom in the form of a Latin cross. The window cross was original made of stone ('stone cross-window'); not until the Renaissance and

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

periods did the timber cross-window emerge (e. g. on the abbey castle of Escorial and on other buildings in the Herrerian style). Where the transom is in the middle, the window is divided into four lights of equal size. Later the windows were often divided into six lights, the two upper ones often being joined and forming a type of

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window, often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. Th ...

References

Literature

* ''Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon''. Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim/Wien/Zürich 1973, Vol. 8, p. 638.

External links

Examples of cross-windows in Austria
{{Authority control Windows