architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

, a squinch is a triangular corner that supports the base of a dome. Its visual purpose is to translate a rectangle into an octagon. See also:

pendentive In architecture, a pendentive is a constructional device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or of an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to point ...

Construction

A squinch is typically formed by a masonry arch that spans a square corner.

History in the Middle East

The dome chamber in the

Palace of Ardashir The Palace of Ardashir Pāpakan (in fa, کاخ اردشير پاپکان, ''Kākh-e Ardashir-e Pāpakān''), also known as the ''Atash-kadeh'' آتشکده, is a castle located on the slopes of the mountain on which Dezh Dokhtar is situated. B ...

, the

Sassanid The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...

king, in Firuzabad,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

is the earliest surviving example of the use of the squinch, suggesting that the squinch may have been invented in

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. After the rise of Islam, it was used in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

in both eastern Romanesque and

Islamic architecture Islamic architecture comprises the architectural styles of buildings associated with Islam. It encompasses both secular and religious styles from the early history of Islam to the present day. The Islamic world encompasses a wide geographic ...

. It remained a feature of Islamic architecture, especially in

, and was often covered by corbelled

stalactite A stalactite (, ; from the Greek 'stalaktos' ('dripping') via ''stalassein'' ('to drip') is a mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of caves, hot springs, or man-made structures such as bridges and mines. Any material that is soluble ...

-like structures known as

muqarnas Muqarnas ( ar, مقرنص; fa, مقرنس), also known in Iranian architecture as Ahoopāy ( fa, آهوپای) and in Iberian architecture as Mocárabe, is a form of ornamented vaulting in Islamic architecture. It is the archetypal form of I ...

History in Western Europe

It spread to the Romanesque architecture of western

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, one example being the Normans' 12th-century church of

San Cataldo, Palermo The Church of San Cataldo is a Catholic church located at Piazza Bellini in central Palermo, Sicily, Italy. Erected in 1154 as a notable example of the Arab-Norman architecture which flourished in Sicily under Norman rule on the island, the chu ...

in Sicily. This has three domes, each supported by four doubled squinches.

Etymology

The word may possibly originate, the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...

'' suggests, from the French word ''escoinson'', meaning "from an angle", which became the English word "scuncheon" and then "scunch".

References

External links

* Domes Arches and vaults Architectural elements Islamic architectural elements {{Architecturalelement-stub