In
architecture, a
hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the
Iron Age, a
mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers. Later, rooms were partitioned from it, and the space next to the front door became the entrance hall. Today, the (entrance) hall of a house is the space next to the front door or
vestibule leading to the rooms directly and/or indirectly. Where the hall inside the front door of a house is elongated, it may be called a
passage,
corridor (from Spanish
corredor used in
El Escorial and 100 years later in
Castle Howard) or
hallway.
