Reredos Synonyms

The foreign "retable" is, therefore, what should in English be called a "reredos" (q.v.), though that is not in modern usage a movable feature.

The church of St Peter, erected about 1too and renewed in the Gothic style in the 15th century, has a lofty steeple (365 ft.) and contains a very fine carved oak reredos by Hans Bruggemann, which is regarded as the most valuable work of art in Schleswig-Holstein.

It possesses a fine painted reredos.

This baldachin, called liturgically the ciborium, is sometimes hung from the roof by chains in such a way that it can be lowered or raised; sometimes it is fixed to the wall or reredos; sometimes it is a solid structure of wood covered with metal or of marble supported on four columns.

But in the middle ages the altars were placed against the east wall of the churches, or else against a reredos erected at the east side of the altar, so as to prevent all access to the table from that side; the celebrant was thus brought round to the west side and caused to stand between the people and the altar.