Tribune is an ambiguous – and often misused – architectural term, which can have several meanings. Today, it most often refers to a dais or stage-like platform or, in a vaguer sense, any place from which a speech can be prominently made.
In ancient Rome, the term was used of a semicircular apse in a Roman basilica, with a raised platform, where a presiding magistrate (a tribune, or others) sat in an official chair. Subsequently, it applied generally to any raised structure from which speeches were delivered, including makeshift wooden structures in the Roman Forum and even the private box of the emperor at the Circus Maximus.[1]
The sense of the term is sometimes extended to any gallery, balcony, or triforium. (Nikolaus Pevsner, in his book series The Buildings of England (1951–74), is at pains to point out that a tribune and a triforium, while often confused, are not the same thing.) In a church, it may refer to an open arcade overlooking the nave of a church – or indeed any large hall – often situated below a clerestory.
The term is also loosely applied to various other raised spaces in secular or ecclesiastical buildings – in the latter sometimes in the place of pulpit, as in the Priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs at Paris.[1] Thus,"tribune" can refer to a dais or stage-like platform,[1] or in a vaguer sense any place in a building from which a speech can be prominently made, which seems a return to the original function of the early Roman tribunal. This is the origin of the common metaphorical use of "tribune" in the names of newspapers, magazines and broadcast news programs.
