Blog and Gargoyles and Grotesquess

Gargoyles and Grotesques

 Gargoyles are carved stone statues that spout rainwater as a way to keep it off the side of a building. Gargoyles are a grotesque which is a figure of a mythical creature.

In Ancient Egypt and Greece the gargoyles normally were of a lion's head.

(Ancient Egyptian gargoyle.)

(Greek gargoyle)

Many Medieval Cathedrals have gargoyles such as the Notre Dame de Paris. These tend to have grotesques, although some gargoyles feature depictions of people mixed with humans.

(Gargoyle at the Notre Dame)

(Gargoyle on the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur, Paris, France)

(Gargoyle on Zagreb Cathedral, Croatia)

 When they're not used as drains for rain water/ gargoyles they are called grotesques or chimeras. Grotesque commonly means mysterious, ugly, unpleasant and something that makes you uncomfortable.

(Grotesque in London)

(Grotesque in Birmingham, England)

(Grotesque in Norway)

(Groteque in Bavaria )

(grotesque in Oxford)