Gargoyles that serve as water drainage spouts
In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between. Architects often used multiple gargoyles on buildings to divide the flow of rainwater off the roof to minimize the potential damage from a rainstorm. A trough is cut in the back of the gargoyle and rainwater typically exits through the open mouth. Gargoyles are usually an elongated fantastic animal because the length of the gargoyle determines how far water is thrown from the wall.
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Gargoyle-Notre Dame Cathedral
The term "gargoyle" originates from the French gargouille, which in English means "throat" or is otherwise known as the "gullet". When not constructed as a waterspout and only serving an ornamental or artistic function, the correct term for such a sculpture is a grotesque, chimera, or boss. Just as with bosses and chimeras, gargoyles are said to frighten off and protect those that it guards, such as a church, from any evil or harmful spirits.
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Notre Dame Cathedral |
Some Gargoyles have been badly eroded by time, water and pollution |
Gargoyles |
A classic Citroen zips past the Cathedral |
Vaulted ceiling inside Notre Dame |
Ascending Notre Dame and between its towers- A spire on the Cathedral's roof |
Chimeras, Cathedral of Notre Dame
Gargoyles have a functional purpose, usually as water spouts to direct rain away from a cathedrals walls, whereas chimeras are used as simple decorations. At Notre Dame most are on the façade, seated on a gallery, watching the people below and scanning all of Paris. The sculptors really used their imagination on these statues. They are animal and human figures, half-man and half-beast, grotesque, horrific, fantastic creatures with eagles’ beaks and wings, lions’ talons, serpents’ tails
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Chimeras, Cathedral of Notre Dame |
Chimeras, Cathedral of Notre Dame |
A chimera severely eroded oved the centuries, Cathedral of Notre Dame |
Tourists between the towers of Notre Dame |
Cathedral of Notre Dame |
Statues of the Apostles, roof of the Cathedral of Notre Dame |
