A strainer arch (also straining arch) is an internal structural arch built to relieve the inward pressure off the spanned vertical supports (providing a "buttress", thus also called buttressing arches), usually as an afterthought to prevent the...
An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but structural...
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more historic (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act...
An inverted arch or invert is a civil-engineering structure in the form of an inverted arch, inverted in comparison to the usual arch bridge. Like the flying arch, the inverted arch is not usually used to support a load (with the exceptions of the...
Historically, the term counter-arch was used in architecture to describe multiple types of arches that provide opposing action: an inverted arch used opposite of a regular one. For example, an inverted arch in an open spandrel or in "Moseley...
The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or...
St Denys' Church is a medieval Anglican parish church in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England. While a church and a priest have probably been present in the settlement since approximately 1086, the oldest parts of the present building are the tower and...
In architecture or civil engineering, a flying arch is a form of arch bridge that does not carry any vertical load, but is built solely to provide outward horizontal forces, to resist an inwards compression. They are used across cuttings to prevent...
A westwork (German: Westwerk), forepart, avant-corps or avancorpo is the monumental, west-facing entrance section ("west front") of a Carolingian, Ottonian, or Romanesque church. The exterior consists of multiple stories between two towers. The...
A crossing, in ecclesiastical architecture, is the junction of the four arms of a cruciform (cross-shaped) church. In a typically oriented church, the crossing gives access to the nave to the west, the transept arms to the north and south, and the...
