Härskarsymbol och högsäte - om betydelsen av västmarkeringar i romanska kyrkor

While the liturgical centre of the church is the high altar in the chancel, the western part of the Romanesque church has often been ascribed a more secular character. This seems to be an area where those in power could assert their authority in a religious setting. The magnitude of these manifestations vary greatly, from the ostentatious westworks of the cathedrals and the miscellaneous forms of western towers of many ordinary country churches, down to the humble elevated western benches of the towerless houses of worship. The variation in scale and form has mostly been viewed as a consequence of varying economic
resources among the builders, but in this article it is argued that different
expressions were chosen because they also had different functional, social and symbolic connotations.