CHEVET, in architecture, the entire eastern termination of a church choir (q.v.), a term used especially for churches with apses (q.v.) ; also an ambulatory (q.v.) from which a series of radiating chapels open. It is a distinctly French development, appearing in a highly organized form in many 12th century Romanesque churches; e.g., Notre Dame du Port, Clermont Ferrand and St. Paul, Issoire. It resulted from attempts to place as many subsidiary altars in chapels as possible, in close associa tion with the high altar and the procession path around it. The development of the chevet produced many spaces of unusual shape whose vaulting was one of the great incentives toward the evolution of the ribbed and pointed vault; the chevet, therefore, plays an important part in the transition from Romanesque to Gothic. The radiating chapels are usually uneven in number, and the central one is frequently much larger than the others, dedi cated to the Virgin Mary and known as the Lady-Chapel.
