Illustrated Architecture Dictionary

Pulpit

A raised platform in a church, usually enclosed, where the minister or preacher stands to conduct the sermon.

Elaborate pulpits include on overhead canopy.

Etymology: Latin "ulpitum": scaffold, platform, stage.

Equivalent platforms for speakers are the bema (bima, bimah) of Ancient Greece and Jewish synagogues, and the  minbar of Islamic mosques.

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Examples from Buffalo architecture:

• Illustration above: St. Ann RC Church
  
  
• Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
  
  
• St. Louis RC Church
  
  
• First Presbyterian Church
  
  
• Corpus Christi RC Church
  
  
• St. Francis Xavier RC Church - Buffalo Religious Art Center
  
  
• St. Mary of Sorrows RC Church - Buffalo Religious Art Center

• St. Luke's RC Church/St. Luke's Mission of Mercy

• Hellenic Orthodox Church of the Annunciation
  
  
• Assumption RC Church
  
  
• St. Stanislaus RC Church

Other examples:

• St. Nicholas Church, Prague, Czech Republic
  
  
• St. Francis Xavier Church, Amsterdam, Holland
  
  
• Milan Cathedral, Italy

• Siena Cathedral, Italy