Gargoyles and Grotesques

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In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque, usually made of granite, 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. When Gothic flying buttresses were used, aqueducts were sometimes cut into the buttress to divert water over the aisle walls.

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The term originates from the French gargouille, which in English is likely to mean "throat" or is otherwise known as the "gullet"; cf. Latin gurgulio, gula, gargula ("gullet" or "throat") and similar words derived from the root gar, "to swallow", which represented the gurgling sound of water (e.g., Spanish garganta, "throat"; Spanish gárgola, "gargoyle"). It is also connected to the French verb gargariser, which means "to gargle." The Italian word for gargoyle is doccione or gronda sporgente, an architecturally precise phrase which means "protruding gutter."
Grotesque is a sculpture that does not work as a waterspout and serves only an ornamental or artistic function.
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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The term gargoyle is most often applied to medieval work, but throughout all ages some means of water diversion, when not conveyed in gutters, was adopted. In Ancient Egyptian architecture, gargoyles showed little variation, typically in the form of a lion's head. Similar lion-mouthed water spouts were also seen on Greek temples, carved or modeled in the marble or terracotta cymatium of the cornice. An excellent example of this are the 39 remaining lion-headed water spouts on the Temple of Zeus. There were originally 102 gargoyles or spouts, but due to the heavy weight (they were crafted from marble), many have snapped off and had to be replaced.
Many medieval cathedrals included gargoyles and chimeras. The most famous examples are those of Notre Dame de Paris. Although most have grotesque features, the term gargoyle has come to include all types of images. Some gargoyles were depicted as monks, or combinations of real animals and people, many of which were humorous. Unusual animal mixtures, or chimeras, did not act as rainspouts and are more properly called grotesques. They serve more as ornamentation, but are now synonymous with gargoyles.
Both ornamented and unornamented water spouts projecting from roofs at parapet level were a common device used to shed rainwater from buildings until the early eighteenth century. From that time, more and more buildings bought drainpipes to carry the water from the guttering roof to the ground and only very few buildings using gargoyles were constructed. This was because some people found them frightening, and sometimes heavy ones fell off, causing damage. In 1724, the London Building Act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain made the use of downpipes compulsory on all new construction.

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Oakland Cemetery – Atlanta, Georgia
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San Juan de los Reyes Monastery – Toledo, Spain

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San Juan de los Reyes Monastery – Toledo, Spain

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Natural History Museum – London, England


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Notre Dame Cathedral – Paris, France

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Cologne Cathedral – Cologne, Germany

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Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya – Barcelona, Spain


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Forbidden City – Beijing, China

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Mont Saint-Michel – Normandy, France

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Washington National Cathedral – Washington D.C., USA


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St. Nicholas Church – Lüneburg, Germany


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Peace Tower on Parliament Hill – Ottawa, Canada


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Marble Church, Bodelwyddan – Clwyd, Wales

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Cologne Cathedral – Cologne, Germany


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Notre Dame Cathedral – Paris, France


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Reims Cathedral – Reims, France


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University of Washington – Seattle, Washington

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University of Sydney – Sydney, Australia

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Château d’Amboise – Amboise, France

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Alcobaça Monastery – Alcobaça, Portugal


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Washington National Cathedral – Washington D.C., USA


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Princeton University – New Jersey, USA


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Winchester Cathedral – Winchester, England


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Biltmore Estate – North Carolina, USA

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Cathedral of Santa Eulalia – Barcelona, Spain


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Palma Cathedral – Palam, Mallorca, Spain


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Magdalen College – Oxford, England


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Zagreb Cathedral – Zagreb, Croatia


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Washington National Cathedral – Washington D.C., USA

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Hospital de Sant Pau – Barcelona, Spain


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Westminster Abbey – London, England

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Château d’Amboise – Amboise, France

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Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya – Barcelona, Spain


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St Mary’s Cathedral – Edinburgh, Scotland

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Notre Dame Cathedral – Paris, France

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Notre Dame de l’Épine – Marne, France


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Plummer Building – Rochester, Minnesota

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Cheshire, England

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Notre Dame Cathedral – Paris, France


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