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Home > Building > Architecture > Narthex
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Through the portal, one enters the narthex (Latin for “porch”).
The narthex of Duke Chapel is a place for visitors to pause and
reflect, to prepare for the splendor of the sanctuary itself, and
to remember that they are entering a place of worship. The narthex
is the visitor’s first glimpse of the Gothic style of the
Chapel’s interior, with its delicate ribbed vaulting and beautiful
carved bosses.
Above the entrance to the nave are some organ pipes — silent,
as they are now merely decorative. These are the remnants of an
antiphonal section of the older Æolian organ, whose casing
helps protect the Flentrop organ. Around the other walls of the
narthex are six stained-glass windows representing women of the
Old Testament. Steps lead up to three pairs of oak doors with
pane glass and gold-plated decoration, which open to the nave.
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