An enriched screen usually surmounted by a rood, in the rood-loft, placed between the chancel and the nave, i.e.,between the clergy and the people, of medieval churches. Its precise origin is obscure, though it is possibly traceable to a merely ornamental feature of two 4th-century basilicas; doubtless its later use was practical rather than symbolic. Some are constructed of stone and later examples are of metal work, but usually they are of wood, having close paneling often with painted figures of saints, below, and open screenwork above, supporting tracery and richly carved cornices and crestings. In some churches the rood-screen extended across the aisles. Notable remaining examples are at Cawston, England; Troyes, France; Louvain, Belgium; and Lubeck, Germany.
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