coffer

thumb|right|Coffering on the ceiling of the Pantheon, Rome|Pantheon ([[Rome)]] thumb|right|Coffered ceiling with carved human heads at Wawel Castle ([[Kraków)]]

A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also called caissons ("boxes"), or lacunaria ("spaces, openings"), so that a coffered ceiling can be called a lacunar ceiling: the strength of the structure is in the framework of the coffers.