Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, June 7th, 2025
Eve of Pentacost
Attention!
Tired of seeing ads while studying? Now you can enjoy an "Ads Free" version of the site for as little as 10¢ a day and support a great cause!
Click here to learn more!

Bible Encyclopedias
Reredos

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

Search for…
or
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
Prev Entry
Requiem
Next Entry
Reschen Scheideck
Resource Toolbox
Additional Links

(Anglo-Fr. areredos, from arere, behind, and dos, back), an ornamental screen of stone or wood built up, or forming a facing to the wall behind an altar in a church. Reredoses are frequently decorated with representations of the Passion, niches containing statues of saints, and the like. In England these were for the most part destroyed at the Reformation or by the Puritans later; a few medieval examples, however, survive, e.g. at Christchurch, Hants. In some large cathedrals e.g. Winchester, Durham, St Albans, the reredos is a mass of splendid tabernacle work, reaching nearly to the groining. In small churches the reredos is usually replaced by a hanging or parament behind the altar, known as a dossal or dorsal. (See also Altar.) For the legality of images on reredoses in the Church of England, see Image.

The use of the word reredos for the iron or brick back of an open fire-place is all but obsolete.

Bibliography Information
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Reredos'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​bri/​r/reredos.html. 1910.
 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile