A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a

wall A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or, is decorative. There are many kinds of walls, including: * Walls in buildings that form a fundamental part of the su ...

which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (sideways)

force In physics, a force is an influence that can change the motion of an object. A force can cause an object with mass to change its velocity (e.g. moving from a state of rest), i.e., to accelerate. Force can also be described intuitively as a ...

s arising out of inadequately braced

roof A roof ( : roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of temp ...

structures. The term ''counterfort'' can be synonymous with buttress and is often used when referring to dams, retaining walls and other structures holding back earth. Early examples of buttresses are found on the

Eanna E-anna ( sux, , ''house of heavens''), also referred to as the Temple of Inanna, was an ancient Sumerian temple in Uruk. Considered "the residence of Inanna" and Anu, it is mentioned several times in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic ...

Temple (ancient

Uruk Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq ...

), dating to as early as the 4th millennium BC.

Terminology

In addition to flying and ordinary buttresses, brick and masonry buttresses that support wall corners can be classified according to their ground plan. A clasping or clamped buttress has an L shaped ground plan surrounding the corner, an angled buttress has two buttresses meeting at the corner, a setback buttress is similar to an angled buttress but the buttresses are set back from the corner, and a diagonal (or 'French') buttress is at 135° to the walls (45° off of where a regular buttress would be). The gallery below shows top-down views of various types of buttress (dark grey) supporting the corner wall of a structure (light grey). File:Anglebuttress.PNG, Angled buttress File:Claspingbuttress.PNG, Clasping or clamped buttress File:Diagonalbuttress.PNG, Diagonal or 'french' buttress File:Setbackbuttress.PNG, Setback buttress

Gallery

File:Buttress - Palace of Westminster - London - England - 040404.jpg, A buttress and a flying buttress, mostly concealed, supporting walls at the

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north ban ...

File:Zejtun cultural heritage 11.jpg, Buttress at Our Saviour's Chapel, Żejtun, Malta File:2014 02 13 16 12 25 Milano ITALY Duomo facciata facade con lampione with street lamp photo Paolo Villa FOTO3972.JPG, Façade buttresses at

Milan Cathedral Milan Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Milano ; lmo, Domm de Milan ), or Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of the Nativity of Saint Mary ( it, Basilica cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria Nascente, links=no), is the cathedral church of Milan, Lomba ...

, Italy File:Barrage Daniel-Johnson2 edited.jpg, Buttresses on the 700ft tall Daniel-Johnson Dam, Quebec File:Stone Butresses (48013292043).jpg, Thick buttresses characterize

Earthquake Baroque Earthquake Baroque or Seismic Baroque is a style of Baroque architecture found in the Philippines and Guatemala, which suffered destructive earthquakes during the 17th century and 18th century, where large public buildings, such as churches, w ...

architecture like

Paoay Church Paoay, officially the Municipality of Paoay ( ilo, Ili ti Paoay; fil, Bayan ng Paoay), is a 4th class municipality in the province of Ilocos Norte, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 25,001 people. The town is h ...

, Philippines File:Western side of the Great Mosque of Kairouan.jpg, Buttresses of the western side of the

Mosque of Uqba The Great Mosque of Kairouan ( ar, جامع القيروان الأكبر), also known as the Mosque of Uqba (), is a mosque situated in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Kairouan, Tunisia and is one of the most impressive and largest Islamic m ...

Kairouan Kairouan (, ), also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan ( ar, ٱلْقَيْرَوَان, al-Qayrawān , aeb, script=Latn, Qeirwān ), is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by t ...

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

File:Standalone row house in Centralia, Pennsylvania.JPG, Buttresses to support the wall of this

row house In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

were constructed after its neighboring house was taken down as part of the

Centralia mine fire The Centralia mine fire is a coal-seam fire that has been burning in the labyrinth of abandoned coal mines underneath the borough of Centralia, Pennsylvania, United States, since at least May 27, 1962. Its original cause and start date are sti ...

References

External links

{{Wikisource1911Enc, Buttress Fortification (architectural elements) Castle architecture Columns and entablature Architectural elements

Terminology

Gallery

See also

References

External links