Before and After: The Impact of Altar Canopies

Guest Article by Michael Bursch, AIA

Altar canopies are beautiful and powerful expressions of the Eucharistic and liturgical purpose of churches around the world. By highlighting the altar, altar canopies draw eyes and hearts to the center of the liturgy, thereby emphasizing the sacrifice of the Mass and the Eucharist, and aiding worshipers in the glorification of God and the sanctification of man. Through the study of several sets of images, this article will examine how the removal or addition of altar canopies visually impacts a church’s focus on the Eucharist vis-a-vis the altar.

There are two major types of altar canopies: the ciborium magnum and the tester. A ciborium magnum is a canopy that utilizes columns to suspend a cloth, metal, wood, or stucco canopy above an altar, whereas a tester is a canopy without columns that is either hung from the ceiling or cantilevered out from a wall. Both ciboriums and testers come in a variety of subtypes and styles, from baldacchino-style ciboriums to contemporary testers.

St. Peter's Basilica, Rome  

Our first example is, of course, St. Peter’s Basilica. Jaw-dropping in both its massive scale and fine marble details, the focal point of the church is the baldacchino-style ciborium beneath the great dome. This magnificent altar canopy visually highlights the prominence of the altar, the Holy of Holies. In the second image, although the church building is certainly still beautiful, the visual prominence of the most important part of the church is lost. One has to squint to find the altar—it has virtually disappeared amidst such a vast and sumptuous space. The altar canopy, through its scale and ornamentation, reminds the viewer of what is truly the heart of the basilica and the Mass: the altar and the Eucharist that is celebrated upon it.

Westminster Cathedral, London

In the second pair of images, we see the altar of Westminster Cathedral in London. Similar to St. Peter’s, this great neo-Byzantine church has scale, detail, and materiality of the highest degree, with the apogee of the church being the great ciborium over the altar. Again, in the second image we can see that the church, while still commanding, is severely lacking in its theological purpose to draw people into the liturgy of the Mass, whose epicenter is the altar and the Eucharist. The unique ciborium in this church manifests the beauty and prominence of this great Sacrament.

This next pair of images studies a parish in New Mexico, of a plain contemporary style that is all too familiar as the proto-typical suburban church. The design has a few places in need of improvement, including the way in which the ambo is elevated on steps, while the altar is located below on the floor of the nave. Without any other alterations, the addition of a ciborium in the second image immediately creates visual prominence about the altar, which was previously lost in a sea of inward-facing chairs. Along with an addition of a predella, upon which the altar is raised, the ciborium truly highlights the altar as “the focal point of the sanctuary” (USCCB’s Built of Living Stones, 57). and the center of the church (General Instructions of the Roman Missal, 299, and Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1182).

In our final set of images, we see a modern church in Spain. In an attempt to emphasize the altar, there is an “altarpiece” in the form of a triptych behind it—however, the way in which it is whitewashed like the rest of the church does little to bring about a sense of the sacred and leaves much to be desired. In the second image, a Baroque baldacchino-style ciborium has been placed—perhaps cheekily—over the altar. This certainly creates a strong hierarchy that centers around the altar, but probably lacks appropriate character and scale in relation to its surroundings. In the second image a tester is used, which is typically more reserved than a ciborium. This tester architecturally manifests the prominence of the altar and the Eucharist in a beautiful, yet more restrained manner.

In all four of these case-studies, the graphic editing to remove or add altar canopies draws into sharp relief the important role that altar canopies can play to highlight the centrality, importance, and transcendence of the altar, the place where Heaven and Earth unite in the sacrifice of the Mass. Altar canopies can play a key role in creating a visual hierarchy of spaces and elements; they emphasize the altar and the Eucharist, and therefore Christ. 

Michael J. Bursch, AIA, is a sacred architect in Washington, DC. After studying architecture and theology at the University of Notre Dame, he now works with Harrison Design’s sacred architecture studio, which specializes in the design of traditional and classical churches across the country. As an independent scholar, he engages in researching the crossover of architecture, theology, and liturgy.