Altar Rails

Altar rails are a set of railings, sometimes ornate and frequently of marble or wood, delimiting the chancel in a church, the part of the sanctuary that contains the altar. A gate at the centre divides the line into two parts. The sanctuary is a figure of heaven, into which entry is not guaranteed. Rails are a feature of Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Methodist churches.

Barriers of various kinds often mark off as especially sacred the area of a church close to the altar, which is largely reserved for ordained clergy. In the Armenian rite curtains are drawn to cut off that area during the holiest moments of the liturgy. In other eastern rites, this evolved into a solid icon-clad screen, called the iconostasis, with three doorways, in each of which there are usually curtains that can be closed or drawn aside at various times. Western Europe had its more transparent Gothic rood screens and the smaller more economical altar rails.