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Arching above a side aisle roof, flying buttresses support the main vault of St. Mary's Church, in Lübeck, Germany.. The flying buttress (arc-boutant, arch buttress) is a specific form of buttress composed of a ramping arch that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, in order to convey to the ground the lateral forces that push a wall outwards, which are forces that ...
The style evolved to one that was less heavy, had larger windows, lighter-weight vaulting supported on stone ribs and above all, the pointed arch which is the defining characteristic of the style now known as Gothic. With thinner walls, larger windows and high pointed arched vaults, the distinctive flying buttresses developed as a means of support.
A typical flying buttress used a single-arch arrangement, although two-tiered arches and even three-tiered designs were used. [ 7 ] The ramping arches can consist of a single circle segment (typical for flying buttresses of large cathedrals) or from two segments with different centers and radii connected at the keystone .
Buttress: Large stone pier holding the roof vaults in place. [3] A buttress may be visible as in the Gothic flying buttress, or it may be hidden in the complex of aisles and galleries. [2] Cathedral: The home church of a bishop, which contains the cathedra or bishop's chair. [2] The church may be of any size. [3]
The Gothic style first appeared in France in the mid-12th century in an Abbey, St Denis Basilica, built by Abbot Suger (1081–1151). The old Basilica was the traditional burial place of Saint Denis, and of the Kings of France, and was also a very popular pilgrimage destination, so much so that pilgrims were sometimes crushed by the crowds.
The flying buttress was an essential feature of High Gothic architecture; the great height and large upper windows would have been impossible without them. Buttresses with arches apart from the walls had existed in earlier periods, but they were generally small, close to the walls, and were often hidden by the outer architecture.
In these the buttresses run up, forming a sort of square turret, and crowned with a pyramidal cap, very much like those of the next period, the Early English. Pinnacles on the top of walls and the corner of flying buttresses. In this and the following styles, mainly in Gothic architecture, the pinnacle seems generally to have had its ...
Gothic architects improved them by adding the flying buttress with high arches connecting the buttresses to the upper walls. In the interior, Romanesque architecture used the barrel vault with a round arch to cover the nave, and a groin vault when two barrel vaults met at right angles.