gargoyles
Open main menu Search Gargoyle Language Watch Edit This article is about the statues on buildings. For the monster, see Gargoyle (monster) . For other uses, see Gargoyle (disambiguation) . Gargoyles of Notre-Dame de Paris Dragon-headed gargoyle of the Tallinn Town Hall , Estonia Gargoyle of the Vasa Chapel at Wawel in Kraków , Poland In architecture , a gargoyle ( / ˈ ɡ ɑːr ɡ ɔɪ l / ) is a carved or formed grotesque [1] :6–8 with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between. Architects often used multiple gargoyles on a building to divide the flow of rainwater off the roof to minimize the potential damage from a rainstorm. A trough is cut in the back of the gargoyle and rainwater typically exits through the open mouth. Gargoyles are usually an elongated fantastical animal because the length of the gargoyle determines how far water is direct