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Chapel

A chapel is a church other than a parish church, often attached to a larger institution such as a college, a hospital, a palace, or a prison.

One of the best known is that at King's College, Cambridge, which has a renowned choir.


In English history, chapel was formerly the required designation of the churches of nonconformist faiths, which is to say, any Protestant churches outside of the established Church of England. It was a word particularly associated with religious practice in Wales.

This distinction had an impact in the Irish language in the Middle Ages, as Welsh people came with the Norman and Old English invaders to the island of Ireland. While the traditional Irish word for church was éaglais, a new word, ceipéal (from chapel) came into usage.

wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump