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...