A gargoyle is a carved or formed grotesque: 6–8 with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building. Architects often used multiple gargoyles on a building to divide the flow of rainwater off the roof to minimize the potential damage from a rainstorm. The term originates from the French gargouille, which in English is likely to mean ‘throat’ or ‘gullet’
About Gargoyle in brief
A gargoyle is a carved or formed grotesque: 6–8 with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building. Architects often used multiple gargoyles on a building to divide the flow of rainwater off the roof to minimize the potential damage from a rainstorm. Gargoyles are usually an elongated fantastical animal because the length of the gargoyle determines how far water is directed from the wall. The term originates from the French gargouille, which in English is likely to mean ‘throat’ or ‘gullet’ The correct term for such a sculpture is a grotesque, chimera, or boss. There are also regional variations, such as the hunky punk. Just as with bosses and chimeras, gargoyle are said to protect what they guard from any evil or harmful spirits.
Many medieval cathedrals included gargoyleras. One of the more famous examples is the gargoyls of Notre-Dame de Paris. Unusual animal mixtures, or grotesques, are more properly called ‘grotesques’ and are more popularly called ‘gargoyles’ This was because people only used them to shed water from the roof until the early 18th century. This was some time before people used guttering to carry the rain from the ground to the ground and only very few buildings constructed using guttering are now used for this purpose. Some people did not act as gutters and instead used unornamented waterspouts projecting from parapet level at roof level to shed rainwater from roofs at parapet levels. The earliest known medieval gargoyled appear on Laon Cathedral.
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This page is based on the article Gargoyle published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 29, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
