![Pergola](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Pergola.jpg)
A pergola is most commonly an outdoor
garden feature
Garden features are physical elements, both natural and manmade, used in garden design.
* Artificial waterfall
* Avenue
*Aviary
*Bog garden
*Borrowed scenery
*Bosquet
* Broderie
* Belvedere
* Chashitsu (tea house)
* Chōzubachi (basin)
* Deck
*D ...
forming a shaded walkway, passageway, or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open
lattice
Lattice may refer to:
Arts and design
* Latticework, an ornamental criss-crossed framework, an arrangement of crossing laths or other thin strips of material
* Lattice (music), an organized grid model of pitch ratios
* Lattice (pastry), an orna ...
, often upon which
woody vine
A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...
s are
trained
Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...
. The origin of the word is the
Late Latin
Late Latin ( la, Latinitas serior) is the scholarly name for the form of Literary Latin of late antiquity.Roberts (1996), p. 537. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the , and continuing into the 7th century in t ...
''pergula'', referring to a projecting eave.
As a type of
gazebo
A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden or spacious public area. Some are used on occasions as bandstands.
Etymology
The etymology given by Oxford Dictionaries is "Mid 18th c ...
, it also may be an extension of a building or serve as protection for an open
terrace
Terrace may refer to:
Landforms and construction
* Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river
* Terrace, a street suffix
* Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk an ...
or a link between
pavilion
In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings:
* It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...
s. They are different from
green tunnel
A tree tunnel is a road, lane or track where the trees on each side form a more or less continuous canopy (biology), canopy overhead, giving the effect of a tunnel.
The effect may be achieved in a formal Avenue (landscape), avenue lined with trees ...
s, with a green tunnel being a type of road under a canopy of trees.
Pergolas are sometimes confused with "arbors," as the terms are used interchangeably. Generally, an "arbor" is regarded as wooden bench seats with a roof, usually enclosed by lattice panels forming a framework for climbing plants; in
evangelical Christianity
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exper ...
,
brush arbor revival
A brush arbour revival, also known as brush arbour meeting, is a revival service that takes place under an open-sided shelter called an " arbour", which is "constructed of vertical poles driven into the ground with additional long poles laid acro ...
s occur under such structures.
A pergola, on the other hand, is a much larger and more open structure. Normally, a pergola does not include integral seating.
Modern pergola structures can also include architectural or engineering structures having a pergola design which are not used in gardens.
California High-Speed Rail
California High-Speed Rail (also known as CAHSR or CHSR) is a publicly funded high-speed rail system currently under construction in California in the United States. Planning for the project began in 1996, when the California Legislature and Gover ...
, for instance, uses large concrete pergolas to support high-speed rail guideways which cut over roadways or other rail tracks at shallow angles (unlike bridges or over-crossings which are usually nearly at right angles). (See the high-speed rail pergola structure picture to the right for an illustration.)
Description
Features and types
A pergola is a
garden feature
Garden features are physical elements, both natural and manmade, used in garden design.
* Artificial waterfall
* Avenue
*Aviary
*Bog garden
*Borrowed scenery
*Bosquet
* Broderie
* Belvedere
* Chashitsu (tea house)
* Chōzubachi (basin)
* Deck
*D ...
forming a shaded walkway, passageway, or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open
lattice
Lattice may refer to:
Arts and design
* Latticework, an ornamental criss-crossed framework, an arrangement of crossing laths or other thin strips of material
* Lattice (music), an organized grid model of pitch ratios
* Lattice (pastry), an orna ...
, often upon which
woody vine
A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...
s are trained.
As a type of
gazebo
A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden or spacious public area. Some are used on occasions as bandstands.
Etymology
The etymology given by Oxford Dictionaries is "Mid 18th c ...
, it may also be an extension of a building or serve as protection for an open
terrace
Terrace may refer to:
Landforms and construction
* Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river
* Terrace, a street suffix
* Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk an ...
or a link between
pavilion
In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings:
* It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...
s.
Pergolas may link pavilions or extend from a building's door to an open garden feature such as an isolated terrace or pool. Freestanding pergolas, those not attached to a home or other structure, provide a sitting area that allows for breeze and light sun, but offer protection from the harsh glare of direct sunlight.
Pergolas also give climbing plants a structure on which to grow.
In 1498,
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
decorated the
Sala delle Asse
The ''Sala delle Asse'' (In English: 'room of the tower' or 'hall of the wooden planks'), is the location of a painting in tempera on plaster by Leonardo da Vinci, dating from about 1498. The decoration is of a room in the Castello Sforzesco in Mi ...
of the
Castello Sforzesco in Milan to give the illusion of the great square and vaulted reception hall being within a pergola that was made up of the intertwined branches of sixteen huge mulberry trees. The novel project was commissioned by the Duke of Milan,
Ludovico Sforza.
Green tunnels
![1949 - Salzburg - Mirabellgarten](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/1949_-_Salzburg_-_Mirabellgarten.JPG)
Pergolas are more permanent architectural features than the
green tunnel
A tree tunnel is a road, lane or track where the trees on each side form a more or less continuous canopy (biology), canopy overhead, giving the effect of a tunnel.
The effect may be achieved in a formal Avenue (landscape), avenue lined with trees ...
s of
late medieval
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...
and early
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
gardens that often were formed of springy
withies
A withy or withe (also willow and osier) is a strong flexible willow stem, typically used in thatching, basketmaking, gardening and for constructing woven wattle hurdles. —easily replaced
shoot
In botany, a plant shoot consists of any plant stem together with its appendages, leaves and lateral buds, flowering stems, and flower buds. The new growth from seed germination that grows upward is a shoot where leaves will develop. In the sp ...
s of
willow
Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...
or
hazel—bound together at the heads to form a series of
arches, then loosely woven with long slats on which climbers were grown, to make a passage that was both cool, shaded, and moderately dry in a shower.
At the
Medici villa
The Medici villas are a series of rural building complexes in Tuscany which were owned by members of the Medici family between the 15th century and the 17th century. The villas served several functions: they were the country palaces of the Medic ...
,
La Petraia, inner and outer curving segments of such green walks, the forerunners of pergolas, give structure to the pattern that can be viewed from the long terrace above it.
History
Origin
The origin of the word is the
Late Latin
Late Latin ( la, Latinitas serior) is the scholarly name for the form of Literary Latin of late antiquity.Roberts (1996), p. 537. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the , and continuing into the 7th century in t ...
''pergula'', referring to a projecting
eave
The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...
. The
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
term was borrowed from
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
. The term was mentioned in an Italian context in 1645 by
John Evelyn
John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society.
John Evelyn's diary, or ...
at the
cloister
A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...
of
Trinità dei Monti
The church of the Santissima Trinità dei Monti, often called merely the Trinità dei Monti ( French: ''La Trinité-des-Monts''), is a Roman Catholic late Renaissance titular church in Rome, central Italy. It is best known for its position above ...
in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
He used the term in an English context in 1654 when, in the company of the
fifth Earl of Pembroke, Evelyn watched the
coursing of hares from a "pergola" built on the
downs near
Salisbury
Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath.
Salisbury is in the southeast of ...
for that purpose.
Historical gardens
The clearly artificial nature of the pergola made it fall from favor in the naturalistic gardening styles of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Yet handsome pergolas on brick and stone pillars with powerful cross-beams were a feature of the gardens designed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by Sir
Edwin Lutyens and
Gertrude Jekyll and epitomize their trademark of firm structure luxuriantly planted. A particularly extensive pergola is featured at the gardens of The Hill in
Hampstead
Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...
(London), designed by
Thomas Mawson
Thomas Hayton Mawson (5 May 1861 – 14 November 1933), known as T. H. Mawson, was a British garden designer, landscape architect, and town planner.
Personal life
Mawson was born in Nether Wyresdale, Lancashire, and left school at age 12. ...
for his client
W. H. Lever
William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme , (, ; 19 September 1851 – 7 May 1925) was an English industrialist, philanthropist, and politician. Having been educated at a small private school until the age of nine, then at church school ...
.
Pergola in Wrocław was designed in 1911 and became a
UNESCO World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
in 2006.
Modern pergolas
![CAHSR Dji 0879](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/CAHSR_Dji_0879.jpg)
Modern pergola design materials including wood, vinyl, fiberglass, aluminum, and
chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) rather than brick or stone pillars, are more affordable and are increasing in popularity. Wooden pergolas are made either from a weather-resistant wood, such as western red cedar (''
Thuja plicata
''Thuja plicata'' is an evergreen coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae, native to western North America. Its common name is western redcedar (western red cedar in the UK), and it is also called Pacific redcedar, giant arborvitae, w ...
'') or, formerly, of coast redwood (''
Sequoia sempervirens
''Sequoia sempervirens'' ()''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995:606–607 is the sole living species of the genus '' Sequoia'' in the cypress family Cupressaceae (formerly treated in Taxodiaceae). Common names include coast redwood, coastal ...
''). They are painted,
stained, or use wood treated with preservatives for outdoor use. For a low maintenance alternative to wood, the contemporary materials of vinyl, fiberglass, aluminum, and CPVC can be used. These materials do not require yearly paint or stain like a wooden pergola would, and their manufacture can make them even stronger and longer-lasting than a wooden pergola. These contemporary material pergolas can also be motorized to open and close.
See also
*
Breezeway
*
Brise soleil
*
Latticework
*
Patio
A patio (, from es, patio ; "courtyard", "forecourt", "yard", "little garden") is an outdoor space generally used for dining or recreation that adjoins a structure and is typically paved. In Australia the term is expanded to include roofed str ...
*
Trellis (architecture)
A trellis (treillage) is an architectural structure, usually made from an open framework or lattice of interwoven or intersecting pieces of wood, bamboo or metal that is normally made to support and display climbing plants, especially shrubs.
*
Vine training systems
The use of vine training systems in viticulture is aimed primarily to assist in canopy management with finding the balance in enough foliage to facilitate photosynthesis without excessive shading that could impede grape ripening or promote grape ...
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Garden features
Gardening aids
Architectural elements
Outdoor recreation