lantern tower

{{More citations needed|date=April 2022}}

File:Tarazona cathédrale 2.jpg at Tarazona Cathedral, Spain]]

In architecture, the lantern tower is a tall construction above the junction of the four arms of a cruciform (cross-shaped) church, with openings through which light from outside can shine down to the crossing (so it also called a crossing lantern).

Many lantern towers are octagonal and give an extra dimension to the decorated interior of the dome.

An affiliated term is the Italian {{lang|it|tiburio}}, which is the lantern atop a dome.

Like a lantern tower, a {{lang|it|tiburio}} is often polygonal and interspersed with windows both to lighten the load and allow for light to shine.

The word {{lang|it|tiburio}} is from the Medieval Latin {{lang|la|tiburium}} ({{literally|hut}}, a variant of {{wikt-lang|la|tugurium}}).{{cite book |last1=Bogdanovic |first1=Jelena |title=The Framing of Sacred Space |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-068137-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m2IpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT102 |quote=For example, Pope Symmachus (498–514) described canopies as tiburium and tegurium, meaning “small house” or “hut.” Other Latin synonyms were tugurinum, tiburinum, tiguriam, cyburium, cipurium, ciborium, fastigium, tegurmentum, tibutium, tegimen […]}}{{cite book |last1=Loi |first1=Maria Cristina |last2=Patetta |first2=Luciano |title=Tradizioni e regionalismi nel primo Rinascimento italiano |date=2005 |publisher=Unicopli |isbn=978-88-400-1051-9 |page=44 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tY1IAQAAIAAJ |language=it |quote=alla voce tiburio, si legge “tigurium, tiburium (latino medievale). Copertura esterna di una cupola […]}}