Other forms: pews
A pew is a long wooden bench with a high back. You'll find many rows of pews in most churches.
Some courtrooms have pews, but mostly they're found in churches, as seating for the congregation and sometimes for the members of a choir. After the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, pews first began to appear in churches. Before that they were rare, as sitting and listening to a sermon was uncommon. Many of these earliest pews were paid for by (and considered the property of) individual families. Pew shares a Latin root with podium.