Architectural terms
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Altar
Eastern part of the indoor premises of a church, separated with a wall or iconostasis
Altar stone
A fixed square table in the middle of altar, covered with tissues with symbols of religion on them; it is the place for the New Testament with altar crosses on the sides and for the tabernacle
Ambulatory
External terrace or gallery frequently open, contouring a building on the level of ground floor in churches, refectories and palaces
Apse
The apse is the semicircular or polygonal termination to the choir or aisles of a church
Arcature, band of pilasters, blind arcading
Decorative element of a wall - band of blind arcades, laying occasionally on pilasters
Arched gable
Semicircular or ogee (having an ogived top in the middle of an arch) end of a wall of a church building; repeats the contour of the vault that is behind
Arched gable cover
A cover of church roofs, repeating semicircular contours of arched gables
Architrave
Lower part of entablature, its base, resting usually on capital or directly on wall.
Axe plan
In Ancient Russian cathedrals a compositional arrangement of church itself (quadrangle), refectory and steeple in axial alignment
Balustrade
Fencing of stair, balcony, terrace consisting of a row of stubby figured pillars (balusters)
Base
Foot, lower bearing member of a column, staff or pier, wider than its shaft
Beading
An ornamental motif, a pattern of beads separated by disks of the same diameter
Bell gable
A construction over a church or standing near it in the form of wall with openings for hanging bells
Blind window
Oriel in a wall, repeating the size and contour of a window; sometimes a folding casement is being imitated with the means of painting
Caisson
A decorative sunken geometrical panel in a ceiling, vault, arch
Capital
The head or crowning feature of a column or pilaster
Catouche
A decoration in a shape of a shield or a semideployed scroll, containing blazon, emblem, inscription
Choir
A top open gallery, balcony inside of a church as well as in a great hall
Classical order
A certain assemblage of portative and portate parts of a load-bearing construction, their structure and artistic treatment. Portative element – a column, consisting of capital, shaft and foundation. Portate horizontal parts form the entablature, consisting of an architrave (lower part), frieze (middle part) and cornice (top offset part). Doric order – one of the main architectural orders, characterized by the column narrowing upwards with cannelures without foundations and by capital in the shape of a drum. It is a key element of monumental arrangement of classical architecture. Ionic order – one of the main architectural orders, has a slender column with foundation and shaft trenched with cannelures. Its differential characteristic is a capital in the shape of a drum with two volutes. The friso is often covered with a relief. Corinthian order – is the finest order characterized by elegant columns with cannelures and foundations, crowned with a splendid capital made of ornamental leaves and small volutes. Tuscan order – simplified version of the Doric order. Has a column without cannelures and a plain friso
Corbel arch
Decorative arched gables, set on walls, vaults and aroung drums of church buildings, having semicircular or ogee contours. frequently corbel arches are arranged in tiers
Cornice
A horizontal offset on the wall, supporting the roof of a building and protecting the wall from a running-off water; also the topmost element of the entablature in architectural orders
Crest
Decor of a rooftop shaped as a broken pediment or cast railings
Cupola
External decorative perfection on the top of drums of domed churches
Decor
a) Assembly of elements and methods in architecture that contribute to its message and artistic content representation<br />и) system of building embellishment (facade, interior)
Dome
Construction of covering (or covering of a building or of a construction itself) having a form close to semisphere. the dome structures let cover vast spaces without any additional intermediate support
Dome drum
Crowning member of a building, cylinder or polygonal wall beneath a dome, often pierced with windows
Double light volume
A volume with two rows of windows not separated by inter-floor covering
Drop ornament
Ornament of an archway, usually made of a carved stone overhung and fixed in a laying with an iron pin. located on gates, perrons or window embrasures<br />
Eightfold sloping roof
Top of quadrangle, each side of which has two slopes of the roof
Entablature
High horizontal part of an order composition usually supported by columns or piers. devided from the bottom upwards into architrave, frieze and cornice
Featoons
A decorative stucco molding in the form of serrated or wavy pattern, swags
Finial
A top, an onion dome; a fretwork (a figured finial)
Flowerpot
Architectural decor in a form of urn
Fluting
Shallow vertical grooves on the shaft of a column or pier
Frieze
a) The middle section of an entablature;<br />b) a decorative composition (image or ornament)in form of a horizontal band on the top of a wall
Fronton
An ending (usually triangle) of a facade of a building, portico, colonnade, limited at both sides by two slopes and a tabling at the base. a decorative fronton - gablet - can be seen on doors and windows of a building. a broken fronton has interrupted slopes for ornamental purposes
Gable
A gable topside of a wall, going without an offset to its main surface
Ground floor
Lower floor of a church or of a house, usually having a service and housekeeping function
Helmet dome
A curved vault close to hemisphere, smoothly going into a peack on the top, reminding by its contour a helmet
Iconostasis
A wall, composed of several tiers of icons, set on timber strip; separates the nave from the sanctuary in a church
Kubyshka
An Ancient Russian decorative and constructive element in the form of a solid short pier with a smooth widening a bit above its base
Lining
decorative setting of a window or a door opening. usually consists of a fronton, two vertical moldings (uprights or semi-columns) and an apron. frequently lining was decorated with a carving
Lucarne
An aperture of a window in a garret or dome roof. lucarnes that have a decorative value are being frequently ornamented with architraves
Melon
Decorative detail belonging to the history of Russian architecture of XIII-XVII centuries, a knop in columnsб piers, window and door architraves, by shape looking like a melon
Narthex
Entrance annex to a church building
Octagonal structure
An octagonal (eight-sided) plan of a building or of its part frequently placed on quadrangle and pierced with windows
Ogee forms (of arched gables, corbel arches)
In the form of semicircle or semioval with a cusp above the centre of the arch
Ogival
Having a cusp at the intersection of two symmetrical arcs
Onion dome
Form of a cover of a cupola that reminds by its contour an onion
Palladian (Venetian) window
A tripartite window with a central arched section sometimes divided by decorative uprights. borrowed from constructions of Italian architect of XVI century A. Palladio
Pane
A decorative rectangular frame or cutting on the surface of a wall or a pier
Parapet
A low guarding wall at the edge of a roof, balcony, perron, riverwalk, bridge
Parvise
A space in front of an entrance to the church
Pavilion
Construction in shape of a high quadrangular or multifaceted pyramid
Petal plan
The plan of a church or of another building in the form of a quadrangle with semicircular corbels at each side
Pilaster
A plain vertical rectangular-sectioned offset on a wall or upright. pilaster has the same parts (shaft, capital, foundation) and proportions as a column; it serves to segment a wall
Pilaster-strip
A flat vertical offset in a wall of the building in the form of a pilaster without a capital
Pineapple facet (rustication)
Coverage of a church dome with square shells having a tuffet in the middle of each square
Pinnacles
Decorative turrets
Porcelain tile
A sort of ceramic veneer; ceramic plate made of burned clay with a drawing on it, looking from its back like an open box in order to be fixed in a laying
Portal
A decorated entrance of a building. perspective portal - casing of an entrance in the form of a row of set-backs going into the wall
Portico
A colonnade, that bears a covering, standing from a wall usually at the entrance. usually ends with a fronton
Posad
A settlement outside of the walls of central city fortification (Kremlin)
Pseudo-Gothic
An architectural style in XVIII–XIX centuries that revives architectural forms and ornaments, as well as constructive features of the West-European Gothic<br />
Pylons
Solid uprights, giving support to inter-floor covering, either flanking the entrance or the accessway
Quadrangle
A building quadrangle (sometimes square) in plan. in composition of lots of steepled and tier churches goes together with an octagonal structure. double lighted quadrangle has two rows of windows not separated by inter-floor covering
Refectory
a) In a monastery - a general dining hall with a church; Russian refectories of XVI-XVII centuries have the form of big halls with open terraces and stairs;<br />b) western annex to a church
Romanesque style
Appeared in X–XIII centuries in West-European countries. characteristic features: solid walls, rare and narrow apertures of windows, high tours, that became one of the key elements of the architectural composition, decent decoration in the form of arcaded frieze
Roof lantern
A small facetted volume finishing the building with a considerable surface of fenestration
Rotunda
Circular building with a dome
Rustication
a) Relief setting or facing of a building with rustic - a rock-face stone;<br />b) finish of a wall surface that reminds a setting of massive stones or being of the form of horizontal stripes of an even height embossing over the background
Semi-column
A column that cantilevers over the edge of a wall to the half of its diameter
Shell
A decoration in imitation of shell (usually a fan-shaped filling of an arched gable or of a semicircular top of an exedra)
Side-altar
A small pillarless extension on the side of north or south front of a church, having an additional altar for church service
Sloboda
A suburb settlement along the road leading to a cityб behind the city wall
Slukhi
Embrasures in a tented roof of a steeple
Socle
A lower, usually somewhat projecting part of an outside wall of a building, construction, monument, resting on a foundation
Stairs
In buildings, stairs is a term applied to a complete flight of steps between floors. A stair flight is a run of stairs or steps between landings.
Steeple
A construction by a church designed for hanging the bells, sometimes in several tiers <br />
Stow
A plot of land that differs from surroundings by any natural characteristics (for ex. a swamp, a forrest in the middle of a field)
Stylobate
Stepped foundation of an architectural construction or sculpture monument
Three-bladed ending
Roof contour in the form of three arcs, the medium one rests on the ends of the lateral arcs, that repeat each other in an inversed manner
Tier
Horizontal articulation of facade, usually relevant to a storey, and also a row of corbel arches in a church building
Vault
A spatial construction, inter-floor covering or covering of a construction in the form of a convex convoluted surface:<br />a) cylindrical - forms a circle when crosscut;<br />b) crossing-square - formed by crossing of two cylindrical vaults;<br />c) cloistered - formed by the extension of walls leaned according to a required curve;<br />d) dome - represents an absolute hemisphere <br />
Volute
A spiral, scroll-like ornament
Сul-de-lampe
Decorative metal rosace with a stellar edge