11.12.09
A History of the Gargoyle
For thousands of years, architects have built this world. What started as simple mud huts soon moved to stone structures and then on to taller buildings. After a while, the act of building became common place. It was only a matter of time before kings and nobles wanted to out do one another and make their building stand out. Starting from before the 1st century B.C.E. into what we call the Middle Ages, architects would turn simple water spouts into Gargoyles.
The practice started in ancient Egypt where gargoyles ejected the water used to clean sacred vessels which was done on the roof of the temple. In ancient Greece, water would pass through the mouth of a lion carved into the building out of marble.
A great number of medieval cathedrals are adorned with gargoyles. The most famous of these is the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. During it’s construction, a number of gargoyles were constructed. Some were designed to convey water, others were put in place to ward off evil spirits. The king of France had a number of enemies at the time and ordered the architect to design every fourth gargoyle in the likeness of on of his enemies. To this day if you look closely at the gargoyles on Notre Dame, you will notice every fourth one looks much more human than the others.
Both ornamented and unornamented water spouts were common on buildings until the early 18th century. At that time, more and more buildings were using pipe guttering to convey water directly to street level. In 1724, the London Building Act made pipe guttering compulsory for all new construction and gargoyles fell out of favor.
What started as a simple means to convey water took on a life of it’s own. Next time you find yourself in a European city, take a look up and see what details you notice.
