Geophysical Journal International

Geophys. J. Int. (2014) 198, 1–7 doi: 10.1093/gji/ggu107

Advance Access publication 2014 April 23
GJI Geomagnetism, rock magnetism and palaeomagnetism

Orientation of churches by magnetic compasses?

Patrick Arneitz,1 Andrea Draxler,1 Roman Rauch2 and Roman Leonhardt1

1 Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik, Hohe Warte 38, 1190 Vienna, Austria. E-mail: patrick.arneitz@zamg.ac.at
2 Montanuniversität Leoben, Peter-Tunner-Strae 25, 8700 Leoben, Austria

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Accepted 2014 March 18. Received 2014 March 17; in original form 2013 December 13

SUMMARY
In Christian religion the sunrise is of great symbolic importance. Therefore, many churches
constructed in the Middle Ages point towards geographic East. Although ‘easting’ of churches
actually refers to the alignment towards the azimuth of sunrise on the individual churches’
patron’s day, deviation of nave alignment from the geographic East direction is often assumed
to be caused by the use of magnetic compasses. Therefore, the church alignment could
provide information about historical magnetic declination. We investigate 124 churches in
Lower Austria and 68 in northern Germany to clarify this question as well as the ‘easting’
hypothesis. Church orientations are determined from georeferenced satellite images. Metadata
such as the construction year, possible reconstructions and the church patron are gathered to
determine the date when current church direction was appointed, and to perform sunrise
calculations. However, due to uncertainties of construction years and the declining importance
of orientation tradition after the 15th century several churches are excluded from the study.
Thus, 32 churches with reliable metadata remain for evaluation in each region. The analysis
reveals a preferred alignment of naves towards geographic East in Lower Austria and northern
Germany. The construction and alignment of churches was often affected by the pre-existing
buildings and streets or topography and natural surroundings. Therefore, deviations from
geographic East are more likely caused by town or landscape. The mean deviations from
magnetic East in both regions are large compared to the mean deviations from geographic
East and sunrise azimuths. Hence, the use of compasses cannot be confirmed. Despite a few
churches indicating orientation according to their patron’s day, a general trend cannot be
observed in the data reviewed.
Key words: Spatial analysis; Magnetic anomalies: modelling and interpretation; Europe.

it also contains parts of the Austrian magnetic surveys. Several other

1 I N T RO D U C T I O N
A detailed reconstruction of the geomagnetic field of the past is
of essential interest for many scientific fields. Among them are
the principles of the Earth’s core dynamics (Hulot et al. 2010),
changes in magnetic secular variation (Hulot et al. 2010), archeo-
magnetic dating (Gomez-Paccard & Beamud 2008; Gallet et al.
2009) and even climatic implications (Gallet et al. 2006). Direct
magnetic field observations all over the world were initiated with
the aid of Carl Friedrich Gauss and Alexander von Humboldt in
the 19th century. Observations started in Austria with Karl Kreil,
who conducted the first Austrian magnetic survey around 1850. In
order to obtain magnetic information before that time, palaeo- and
archeomagnetic recordings are used. Beside these indirect methods,
however, there are many magnetic measurements from man-made
instruments available, obviously starting with the introduction of
the compass in the 13th century. Of particular importance are naval
measurements (Jackson et al. 2000), which are collected in a large
database of global historical geomagnetic data (Jonkers et al. 2003);
sources of primarily magnetic declination measurements, which
have been of great interest for orientation purposes, are summa-
rized by Korte et al. (2009b). Among these sources, the orientation
of churches and other structures is frequently mentioned. For in-
stance, the use of the magnetic compass for the alignment of Chi-
nese tombs (Charvátová et al. 2011) and pyramids in Mesoamerica
(Klokočnı́k et al. 2007) was investigated.
In the Christian religion the sunrise is of symbolic importance.
It is believed to stand for resurrection and life after death, which
form part of the main ideologies of Christianity. Therefore, the East
direction, in which the sun rises, is important for religious tradi-
tions. In this connection, the ‘easting’ procedure is often mentioned
(Reidinger & Koch 2009). ‘Easting’ usually refers to the direction
of sunrise on the church patron’s day. Therefore, in the more devout
Middle Ages before 1500 AD, churches were built and choirs ori-
ented towards East (Eckstein et al. 1995; Heid 2006). In the 16th
century, after the Council of Trent 1545, church orientation towards
the sun is reported to lose its meaning (Reidinger & Koch 2009).


C The Authors 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal Astronomical Society. 1
2 P. Arneitz et al.
However, its not clear whether astronomical and geodetic methods
or magnetic compasses were used to determine the geographic East
direction (90◦ ) or if the point of sunrise was used for alignment.
Assuming that church direction was determined with magnetic
compasses, existing in Europe since the 12th century (Chapman &
Bartels 1962), geographic church orientation should be connected
with magnetic declination at the construction date. Already Wehner
(1905) and Nippold (1916) dealt with this idea, but their hypothesis
of cyclic magnetic secular variation cannot be proven by current
studies (Korte et al. 2009b). Abrahamsen (1992) determined the
geographic orientations of 570 Romanesque churches in Denmark
from the 12th century. This number represents about a third of all
medieval churches in Denmark. He found a systematic clockwise
rotation from geographic East and concluded that about 25 per cent
of the churches were oriented with the aid of a magnetic compass,
as magnetic declination varied between 5◦ and 20◦ between 1000
and 1600 AD (Abrahamsen 1992). Such a correlation could not be
found for early medieval churches in England by Hoare & Sweet
(2000), who also examined the ‘patron theory’. However, only a
few of the 183 churches in this work show orientation according to
patron’s day.
To test if the church orientations in Austria contain informa-
tion about the historic magnetic field, we choose 124 churches,
constructed between 1100 and 1900 AD, south of Vienna in Lower
Austria and determine the exact geographic orientation with Google
Earth and the NÖ Atlas (http://atlas.noe.gv.at) of the provincial gov-
ernment of Lower Austria (see Fig. 1a). Important metadata like the
date of construction, the constructor, the patron, the date of even-
tual rebuilds, the location and the architectural style are consulted in
Aichinger-Rosenberger et al. (2003). During the 16th century West-
ern Europe suffered from attacks from the Ottomans, who ruled a
great empire covering the Eastern parts of Europe along with parts
of Asia. All forces in Europe were occupied with defending its peo-
ple and territories against the Ottoman threat. During these wars
many ancient buildings such as early Christian churches were dam-
aged and destroyed (Agoston 1999). In Austria only a few churches
remained undamaged from that time.
With the arrival of the Renaissance epoch in the 15th and
16th centuries new ideas were established and the old standards
were reconsidered (Burke 2005). For the building and construc-
tion of churches the new age also brought changes. It was no
longer obligatory to orient the church axis in an eastward direction.
Figure 1. Overview of study areas (middle). Church orientations are depicted for Lower Austria (a) and northern Germany (b).
Architects and constructors were free to choose the direction of the
church.
Apart from Lower Austria, a second region of analysis in north-
ern Germany is chosen. This region was not affected by the Ot-
toman wars. Moreover, its flat landscape reduces the uncertainty
of calculations of the solar azimuth on the patrons day, as to-
pography is not included in the calculations. Starting point for
the analysis is the online database www.kirchbau.de (last ac-
cessed 23 April 2013), from which 68 churches situated in the
area between 10◦ –12◦ E and 52◦ –54◦ N are selected (see Fig. 1b).
Metadata like construction year, eventual reconstructions, patron
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and architecture styles can be extracted and are compared to infor-
mation provided by web pages of parishes, friends’ associations,
urban or rural communities and Wikipedia.
In the following considerations and calculations, we compare the
direction of the church axes to the geographic and magnetic East
direction and to the point of sunrise on the patron’s day.
2 METHODS
For the determination of the church orientations georeferenced satel-
lite images of Google Earth and, additionally for Lower Austria, the
NÖ Atlas were used. Measurements were performed along the main
roof ridge with a ruler; in a few cases, when the main roof is blurred
due to bad image quality, measurements were performed along the
edges. Next, the difference between the church’s orientation and
the geographic East direction was calculated. Figs 2(a) and (b)
show these deviations for all 124 churches in Lower Austria and
68 churches in northern Germany. In general, the epochs of Middle
Ages and Baroque (Counter-Reformation) show the largest building
activity.
Church constructions could last from several years to decades.
During the planning phase or, at the latest, during the building of
the foundation, however, the orientation of the church was defined.
Therefore it is advisable to elicit, if possible, the beginning of the
construction procedures. For the determination of the year, in which
the present-day church direction had been appointed, the following
procedure was used: where available, the dates of commencement
of construction from different sources were checked for approxi-
mate consistency. If deviations did not exceed a few decades (20–
30 yr), the year most frequently named was chosen. Alternatively,
the first quotation was considered for churches without provided
 Orientation of churches by magnetic compasses 3

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Figure 2. Deviations from geographic East for 124 churches in Lower Austria (a) and 68 churches in northern Germany (b).

construction year. Imprecise statements like ‘early 13th century’ 20

only allow for a rough estimation, like 1225 for example, and are
overruled by exact date specifications. It is assumed that no direc- 10
tional changes were caused by renovations and expansions subse-
Declination [˚]

quently. However, after this procedure several church construction

dates still remain unclear. Reasons for this are major contradictions 0

in terms of listed dates. Furthermore, in some cases the influence

of predecessor churches, which had been replaced by the current −10
Declination
churches, could not be clarified. In this context, it remains unclear Lower Austria Uncertainty
if an expansion or a new construction was performed, as some Northern Germany Uncertainty
−20
parts of the previous churches like towers, portals with foundation, 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900
choirs, nave pillars, buttresses, altars and pulpits are preserved. Vi- Year
sual inspection of Figs 2(a) and (b) reveals an increase of deviations
Figure 3. Temporal evolution of magnetic declination in Lower Austria
from geographic East in the 18th and 19th centuries. Even churches
(16◦ E, 48◦ N) and northern Germany (11◦ E, 53◦ N; Donadini et al. 2009;
with the choirs located in the West due to the land situation can be Korte et al. 2009a).
found. A period with a very low building activity is observed in
the 16th and 17th centuries (Ottoman wars). After the Council of Appropriate values of magnetic declination for the regarded time
Trent the ‘easting’ procedure lost its meaning (Reidinger & Koch period were extracted from the ARCH3k.1 model (Donadini et al.
2009). Moreover, the magnetic declination was known at different 2009; Korte et al. 2009a) for Lower Austria (16◦ E, 48◦ N) and
places around 1550 (Chapman & Bartels 1962; Korte et al. 2009b), northern Germany (11◦ E, 53◦ N) (see Fig. 3). The deviation of nave
although a general concept of its origin, regional variation and tem- alignment from the modelled magnetic East was then computed.
poral evolution was not established. These facts justify the focusing While for all Austrian churches patrons are known, in northern
on churches constructed before 1500 AD. Additionally, to totally Germany one or more patrons could only be found for 26 of 32
eliminate any influence of previous constructions, we decided to use churches. They were either provided by consulted web pages, or
only the churches without known predecessor buildings in the fol- were derived from the church names. All general and also regional
lowing analysis. Using these criteria 32 churches in Lower Austria feast days on or close to the study area for each patron were gathered
and 32 in northern Germany remain for the evaluation. from an online version of Grotefend (1970). The solar azimuth AP
4 P. Arneitz et al.

of the sunrise on a specific date for latitude φ was calculated with 3 R E S U LT S

the following equation (Karttunen et al. 2007):
Results of the statistical analysis are shown in Fig. 4 and Table 1,
  respectively. Positive angles represent clockwise rotation. Both re-
sin a sin φ − sin δ gions show similar results.
A P = arccos . (1)
cos a cos φ Mean deviations of church directions from geographic East of
−5.5◦ (Lower Austria) and −2.1◦ (northern Germany) are observed.
The sunrise is defined as the time when the upper edge of the Solar These are the smallest values for each study area in comparison to
disc touches the horizon. Taking into consideration atmospheric deviations from magnetic East and sunrise azimuths. Also, the sta-
refraction, the altitude of the sun a was set to −50’ (Karttunen et al. tistical student t-test (Rinne 1991) yields 95 per cent (Lower Aus-
2007). The declination of the sun δ, which is the angle above the tria) and 90 per cent (northern Germany) confidence intervals for

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celestial equator in the equatorial coordinate system, was calculated
with equations from Meeus (1991), where the construction years
and the change of the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar are
considered (see the Appendix). An accuracy of 0.01◦ is prevalent
(Meeus 1991) for this study.
In the following results we present deviations of church orienta-
tion from sunrise azimuth. First, we determine deviations derived
with the patron’s most prominent feast day (hereafter referred as
ordinary feast day). Afterwards, we use all general and regional
feast days of one church patron and select the azimuth with the
smallest deviation from the nave alignment (hereafter referred as
minimum deviation).
the hypothesis that churches were aligned towards the geographic
East direction. On the contrary, mean deviations from magnetic
East of −19.0◦ (Lower Austria) and −14.0◦ (northern Germany)
are the highest values for each study area. Therefore, from a statis-
tical point of view, the use of magnetic compasses for orientation
purposes can be rejected. The analysis concerning church orienta-
tion towards the sunrise on ordinary feast days reveals a confidence
interval of 85 per cent with a mean deviation of −6.6◦ for Lower
Austria. However, in both study areas the evaluation using ordinary
feast days yields almost twice as high standard deviations than us-
ing the minimum deviation from all feast days of one patron (see
Table 1 and high scatter in Fig. 4).

Figure 4. Deviations of nave direction from geographic East (top), magnetic East (middle) and sunrise azimuth (bottom) for Lower Austria (left-hand side) and
northern Germany (right-hand side). Mean deviations are presented with dashed lines and standard deviations with dotted lines. Deviations of sunrise azimuths
from nave alignment are depicted for using only ordinary patron’s days (red) and for the minimum value determined from all feast days of one patron (black).
 Orientation of churches by magnetic compasses 5

Table 1. Statistical evaluation.

Lower Austria Northern Germany
Data n Mean (◦ ) σ (◦ ) Conf. int. (per cent) n Mean (◦ ) σ (◦ ) Conf. int. (per cent)
Geographic dev. 32 − 5.5 21.3 95 32 − 2.1 9.3 90
Magnetic dev. 32 − 19.0 21.6 — 32 − 14.0 9.4 —
Minimum sunrise dev. 32 − 11.2 22.2 — 26 − 6.8 18.3 —
Ordinary sunrise dev. 32 − 6.6 39.7 85 26 13.1 35.8 —
Notes: Results from statistical evaluation for the two study areas, Lower Austria and northern Germany. The number of
investigated churches (n), the mean deviation from geographic East, magnetic East and sunrise azimuth considering ordinary
and all feast days (mean), associated standard deviations (σ ) and confidence intervals are presented.

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4 DISCUSSION directions from geographic East of 1.4◦ ; a value of 0.5◦ is derived
from Google Earth images. For 47 churches (about 60 per cent)
In general, church orientations can be influenced by several factors.
deviations between the two methods are smaller than 2◦ . Slightly
In towns the location of neighbouring buildings, pre-existing streets
higher deviations could arise from the fact that figures of Hermansen
or the foundation soil could influence construction plans. Further-
(1933–1991) do not reflect exact nave orientation. In this context
more, natural surroundings such as vegetation and topography had
Abrahamsen (1992) mentioned minor discrepancies, pointed out by
to be considered. All these factors can also impede the view of
compass remeasurements in the region of Thisted. The difference
the Eastern horizon. Hence, apparent sunrise can be delayed by up
of more than 18◦ in Stepping (Sonderjylland) may be caused by
to 20◦ to the South compared to a flat horizon (Hoare & Sweet
a wrong illustration in Hermansen (1933–1991). We performed a
2000). This is confirmed by increasing altitude of the sun a by 10◦
crosscheck to estimate the uncertainty of measuring orientation in
in eq. (1), which would correspond to a topographic elevation of
Google Earth images by comparison with NÖ Atlas ortho-images.
about 176 m in 1 km distance disguising the horizon. In this way,
Nave alignments were determined for 10 churches in Lower Aus-
a shift of apparent sunrise of 18.4◦ to the South on average for the
tria from both image sources yielding a mean difference of 1.2◦ . For
locations of German churches would be observed. In steep moun-
satellite images, which are not provided in total plan view in Google
tain areas certainly higher deviations would be obtained, but in this
Earth, the inaccuracy of determined orientation increases with the
case orientation by means of the sun would have been futile. How-
deviation of the church long axis from geographic East. An uncer-
ever, sunrise azimuth calculations do not more significantly sup-
tainty of 5◦ can be estimated for extreme cases with orientations
port the hypothesis of church orientation according to the patron’s
deviating more than 20◦ from geographic East. However, for most
day for the flat terrain in northern Germany, even though slightly
churches this is not the case and consequently projection errors can
higher standard deviations are determined for the Lower Austrian
be ruled out as a potential main source for the observed scatter.
region.
The architectural uncertainty might dominate, as the roofs of sev-
Historical patron’s days and changes of the patron, which are not
eral churches have been rebuilt, even though the error introduced
reported, increase the uncertainty of the evaluation. Nevertheless,
thereby cannot be quantified here.
sunrise azimuths, which do not deviate more than 4◦ from nave
Nevertheless, the reanalysis with Google Earth images provides
alignment, are found for nine Lower Austrian churches using the
a clockwise rotation of 0.5◦ on average for the considered churches
minimum deviation from all feast days of one patron. This scatter
in Sonderjylland. The value, however, is very small compared to
in orientation by means of the sun was discussed by Abrahamsen
magnetic declination values of 5◦ –20◦ for the corresponding time
(1992) for early Medieval time. However, in two of the nine cases
period in Denmark (Abrahamsen 1992). On the contrary, for the
feast days lie close to the equinox dates (here referred to an azimuth
churches in our study a systematic rotation of nave alignment cannot
of 86◦ –94◦ ), making it impossible to distinguish between a geo-
be confirmed. Histograms for the investigated Austrian and German
graphic orientation purpose and orientation according to patron’s
churches are shown in Figs 5(c) and (d). Even though positive
day. Holy Maria is the church patron of two of the seven remaining
declination values are given for 1100–1500 AD (see Fig. 3), negative
churches. Her feast days, including also regional ones, are dispersed
average means of −5.5◦ and −2.1◦ are found (see Table 1).
all over the year. This fact increases the chance to find small devia-
According to aeromagnetic survey results (Gutdeutsch & Seiberl
tions. Using ordinary feast days for sunrise calculations yields only
1987) and EMAG2 (Maus et al. 2009) large regional magnetic
one church in Lower Austria within the discussed uncertainty range
anomalies are not present in the two study areas, which is also
of ±4◦ for orientation by means of the sun. In northern Germany 11
to be expected from the prevailing geology. The effects of pos-
churches in this range can be found using minimum deviations, but
sible local small-scale anomalies would be statistically averaged
no churches considering ordinary feast days. From the 11 churches,
out. The uncertainty of some construction years in the range of a
three patron’s days lie close to the equinox dates and six further
few decades does not have a significant effect on the major part
churches are devoted to holy Maria.
of the results. Maximum absolute magnetic declination change per
Abrahamsen (1992) concluded that about 25 per cent of all Ro-
year is smaller than 0.1◦ for 1100–1500 AD (Donadini et al. 2009;
manesque churches in Denmark were oriented with magnetic com-
Korte et al. 2009a). In this context, sunrise azimuth errors would
passes due to a clockwise rotation from geographic East of church
not carry weight either. Therefore, the most likely explanation is
axes. In some regions he used figures from Hermansen (1933–1991)
a desired geographic East–West alignment by astronomical means.
for the determination of church orientation. To compare this method
The statistics for the two different sets (see Table 1) of churches
with ours using satellite images, we could locate and reinvesti-
underlines this statement. Furthermore, there is also no historical
gate 78 of 98 churches from Sonderjylland given by Abrahamsen
evidence that compasses were used for easting churches in the Mid-
(1985). Figs 5(a) and (b) show the histograms for both methods.
dle Ages.
Abrahamsen’s measurements deliver a mean deviation of church
6 P. Arneitz et al.
Figure 5. Histograms of the church axes deviations from geographic East: (a) Abrahamsen’s data for Sonderjylland (Abrahamsen 1985), (b) remeasured
churches in Sonderjylland using Google Earth images, (c) churches in Lower Austria and (d) in northern Germany. An average clockwise rotation for churches
in Sonderjylland is confirmed with satellite images from Google Earth, while Austrian and German churches show an anticlockwise rotation on average.
5 C O N C LU S I O N
The statistic evaluation (see Table 1) confirms the preferred align-
ment of naves towards geographic East in Lower Austria and north-
ern Germany. Alignment deviations are most likely caused by town
or landscape and not by geomagnetic field variations, since a sys-
tematic rotation due to the use of compasses could not be confirmed.
In epochs, after 1500 AD orientation towards geographic East lost
importance (see Figs 2a and b). Even though a few churches indi-
cate orientation according to patron’s day, a general trend cannot be
observed for the available data.
Of course, investigations of a larger data set and in-depth historic
analysis are necessary for more precise conclusions. Nevertheless,
the results of this study show a trend of alignment of churches
towards geographic East and do not support the hypothesis that
church orientations provide a statistically significant record of mag-
netic declination information. Clearer statements cannot be made
due to the complexity of the topic and the associated uncertainties.
AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T S
We gratefully acknowledge the representatives of the parishes
Wiener Neudorf, Prigglitz, Hernstein, Kottingbrunn, St Valentin,
Ebergassing, Heiligenkreuz, Muthmannsdorf, Maiersdorf, Klein
Mariazell, Payerbach, Sulz, Mödling-Sankt Othmar, Maria Lanzen-
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dorf, Vösendorf, Tribuswinkel, Theresienfeld, Brunn, Zwölfaxing,
Himberg and Krumbach for their contributions. The research is
funded by FWF grant P24722. We also thank the two reviewers
Harald Böhnel and John Shaw and Editor Eduard Petrovsky for
constructive comments, which helped us to improve the original
manuscript.
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centers in Mesoamerica: were they oriented using a magnetic compass?
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Korte, M., Donadini, F. & Constable, C.G., 2009a. Geomagnetic field for 0– e = 23◦ + 26.0 + 21.448 − 46.815 T − 0.00059 T 2
3 ka: 2. A new series of time-varying global models, Geochem. Geophys.
Geosyst., 10(6), Q06008, doi:10.1029/2008GC002297 + 0.001813 T 3 + 0.00256 cos() (A8)
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for munich from different data sources, Phys. Earth planet. Inter., 177(3– with
4), 161–172.
Maus, S. et al., 2009. EMAG: a 2-arc min resolution Earth Mag-  = 125.04 − 1934.136T. (A9)
netic Anomaly Grid compiled from satellite, airborne, and marine The declination δ of the sun is finally given by
magnetic measurements, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 10(8), Q08005,
doi:10.1029/2009GC002471 δ = arcsin(sin(e) sin()). (A10)
Meeus, J., 1991. Astronomical Algorithms, Willmann-Bell, Inc.
Nippold, A., 1916. Ein Beitrag zur Frage der Ausrichtung der Kirchenachsen
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244.
Reidinger, E. & Koch, R., 2009. Die Stiftskirche von Heiligenkreuz,
Achsknick und Orientierungstage, Antworten aus der Gründungsplanung,
in Sancta Crux, Zeitschrift des Stiftes Heiligenkreuz, Vol. 70, no. 126, S U P P O RT I N G I N F O R M AT I O N
pp. 37–103, Veröffentlichung und Plan. Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online ver-
Rinne, H., 1991. Taschenbuch der Statistik, 2nd edn, Verlag. sion of this article:
Wehner, H., 1905. Ueber die Kenntnis der magnetischen Nordweisung im
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churches_supplementary.xls (http://gji.oxfordjournals.org/lookup/
suppl/doi:10.1093/gji/ggu107/-/DC1).
APPENDIX
Please note: Oxford University Press is not responsible for the
Calculation of the declination of the sun
content or functionality of any supporting materials supplied by
The declination of the sun δ is calculated with the following the authors. Any queries (other than missing material) should be
formulae by Meeus (1991) with an accuracy of about 0.01◦ . directed to the corresponding author for the article.