Editing Chapter house (section)

==Design==
[[File:Porvoon tuomiokapitulin talo2.jpg|thumb|The chapter house from the 1750s in the old town of [[Porvoo, Finland]]]]
When part of a monastery, the chapter house is generally located on the eastern wing of the [[cloister]], which is next to the church.  Since many cathedrals in England were originally monastic foundations, this is a common arrangement there also.  Elsewhere it may be a separate building. The chapter house comprises a large space, in order to hold all the [[monk]]s of the monastery, and is often highly ornamented.  Typically there is seating around, often built into, all the walls of the room, often in stone, with the central space left open. The seats for the senior members are often larger than the others, and may be raised on a [[dais]].  Usually there is only one doorway, and though the room is well-lit where the location allows, the windows are often too high to allow a view in from outside (or eavesdropping). Many larger chapter houses are designed with vestibules for attendants and those waiting to be called, where opening onto a cloister does not provide such a space.  There is often a fireplace, and altars are found in some examples, sometimes added later.

Many medieval rooms use stone vaulting supported by columns in the centre of the space, as used for other more utilitarian large rooms in monasteries with a generous  budget.  Others have much higher roofs.   The shape of the room is usually designed to allow good audibility for speakers from all parts of the room. It may be rectangular, tending towards the square, but octagonal and other near-circular plans are an English speciality, with that at [[Worcester Cathedral]] probably the earliest. Most, like those at [[Wells Cathedral]], [[Lichfield Cathedral]], [[Westminster Abbey]] and [[Lacock Abbey]], have a single central column from which the high roof vaulting spreads. [[York Minster]] has a wooden roof and no central column.  Many have elaborate benched arcades round the wall, with [[crocket]]ed frames for the seats.  English chapter houses tend to be more elaborate and highly decorated than Continental ones, and the octagonal shape allowed for spectacular displays of [[stained glass]], now mostly lost, though not at York.  Except at Westminster Abbey any paintings have been lost, but English designs, with their emphasis on carved arcades and windows, did not leave the large wall spaces found in most Continental chapter houses.

At Westminster the chapter house, opposite the [[Palace of Westminster]], was used from the erection of the present building for royal meetings, including many of the royal council, and was the usual location for meetings of the [[House of Commons of England|House of Commons]] until the reign of [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]].  It was converted into the first home of what is now the [[Public Record Office]] (the national archives) soon after the [[English Reformation]], and the late Gothic paintings added behind the seats (see gallery) were preserved hidden behind bookshelves until the 19th century.

In some [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] or [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]] monasteries, the entrance to the chapter house has an elaborate [[façade]] with a door surrounded by highly decorated [[archivolt]]s, especially when it is a separate building.  Many chapterhouses feature elaborate carving or [[fresco]]s, which include some masterpieces of religious art, but were also sometimes secular. The [[paintings from Arlanza]], now spread across museums in Spain and the United States, originally decorated the monastery of [[San Pedro de Arlanza]], and contain huge bold mythical beasts that are some of the finest survivals of Romanesque palace decoration. In modern settings, the chapterhouse may simply be (or use) an ordinary office [[boardroom]] or meeting room.  When it is a separate building, this often consists of just the single main room.