The term matroneum derives from the word “matron” and, in medieval churches, was an architectural element consisting of a gallery. More precisely, it was a tribune, located above the side aisles and open to the central one, in which women attended religious worship. Later, the women’s gallery, the matroneum, was no longer reserved for women, and had a purely aesthetic or structural purpose. In particular, it served to more easily contain the thrusts coming from the nave in order to balance its statics.
