Capitol
at Cologne, where the aisles are carried round both the northern and
southern apses. The same feature exists in the cathedral of Tournai in
Belgium and the churches at Cambrai, Soissons and Valenciennes (the last
destroyed at the Revolution) in France, and also in the cathedrals of
Como and of Pisa in Italy. Without aisles, there are examples in the
churches of the Apostles and of St Martin at Cologne; St Quirinus at
Neuss; at Roermond; St Cross, Breslau; the cathedral of Bonn; and, at a
later date, in the Marienkirche at Trier; S. Elizabeth at Marburg; the
church of Sta Maria-del-Fiore at Florence; and the cathedral of Parma.

In consequence of a change made in the orientation of apses in the 6th
or 7th century, others were subsequently added at the west end of
existing churches, and this is considered to have been the case at
Canterbury; but in the German churches sometimes apses were built from
the first at both ends, such as are shown on the manuscript plan of St
Gall, of the 9th century. Western apses exist at Gernrode; Drubeck;
Huyseburg; the Obermunster of Regensburg; St Godehard in Hildesheim; the
cathedrals of Worms and Trier; the Abbey church of Laach; the Minster at
Bonn; and in St Pietro-in-Grado near Pisa.

The triapsal churches, to which we have referred, are those in which the
side apses form the termination of the side aisles; but where there are
transepts, the aisles are sometimes not continued beyond them, and the
expansion of the transept to north and south gives more ample space for
apses; of these there are many examples, as in the Abbey church of Laach
in Germany; at Romsey; Christchurch, Hants; Gloucester, Ely, Norwich and
Canterbury cathedrals, in England; and at St Georges de Boscherville in
France; sometimes there being space for two apses on each side.

In the beginning of the 13th century in France, the apses became
radiating chapels outside the choir aisle, henceforth known as the
chevet. These radiating chapels would seem to have been suggested in
Norwich and Canterbury cathedrals, but the feature is essentially a
French one and in England is found only in Westminster Abbey, into which
it was introduced by Henry III., to whom the chevets of Amiens, Beauvais
and Reims were probably well known. (R. P. S.)

APSE and APSIDES, in mechanics, either of the two points of an orbit
which are nearest to and farthest from the centre of motion. They are
called the lower or nearer, a