architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

, the term xystum refers to a wall, promenade, alley, or open path. It can also refer to an atrium,

ambulacrum Ambulacrum is an architectural word that denotes an atrium, courtyard, or parvise in front of a basilica or church that is surrounded by arcades or colonnades, or trees, and which often contains a fountain. It also can denote a walking path t ...

, or

parvis A parvis or parvise is the open space in front of and around a cathedral or Church (building) , church, especially when surrounded by either colonnades or porticoes, as at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It is thus a church-specific type of forec ...

in front of a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

. The term should not be confused with the ancient

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

architectural term ''xystus'', meaning the covered

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

of a gymnasium.

Sources

* Architectural elements {{architecturalelement-stub