Reply To: Pilgrimage Churches

[tmbergan]

Pilgrimages became largely important during the Romanesque period as travelers believed it could heal the person and their soul. Along with that, it was also a way to go and socialize with new people in different classes as well as different cities or countries. To accommodate the large crowds, churches were designed to be bigger with double aisles to allow the travelers to move around the outskirts of the church as to not disturb the Mass that would occur in the center. The Church of Saint Foy is an example of this, with a layout so the pilgrims could enter through one side and go around the church to an area with smaller chapels that held shrines for saints. They would go through these chapels and then exit through another area to help with traffic.