A floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones, or other objects, could be dropped on attackers at the base of a defensive wall.
Tag Archives: architecture
corbel
A structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a weight.
Corbelling, where rows of corbels gradually build a wall out from the vertical, has long been used as a simple kind of vaulting, for example in many Neolithic chambered cairns, where walls are gradually corbelled in until the opening can be spanned by a slab.
A very famous corbeled vault is at Newgrange:
quatrefoil
ambulatory
Any part of a building intended for walking, as the aisles of a church, particularly those surrounding the choir and apse, or the cloisters of a monastery; any portico or corridor.
belvedere
A roofed structure, especially a small pavilion or tower on top of a building, situated so as to command a wide view.
palmate
Having a shape similar to that of a hand with the fingers extended: palmate antlers; palmate coral.
Quonset hut
A prefabricated building having a semicircular roof of corrugated iron.
newel
The upright post about which the steps of a circular staircase wind; hence, in stairs having straight flights, the principal post at the foot of a staircase, or the secondary ones at the landings. Also called newel post.
entablature
The upper section of a classical building, resting on the columns and constituting the architrave, frieze, and cornice.
Source: caryatid
caryatid
[ARCHITECTURE] a stone carving of a draped female figure, used as a pillar to support the entablature of a Greek or Greek-style building.
I vaguely remembered this one from art history classes but good to be reminded!
In the centre stood the fountain, a shallow basin supported by a plinth of caryatids.
Definition from Kindle
Image source: Wikipedia
metonymic / autodidactic 