blind arcade
Image:Arcature.eglise.Sainte.Madeleine.Chateaudun.png, France]]
A blind arcade or blank arcade is an arcade (a series of arches) that has no actual openings and that is applied to the surface of a wall as a decorative element: i.e., the arches are not windows or openings but are part of the masonry face. It is designed as an ornamental architectural element and has no load-bearing function.
Similar structures
Whereas a blind arch is usually a single arch or a series of joined arches as a frieze (sometimes called Lombard band), a blind arcade is composed of a series of arches that have well-defined columns in between its arches.
A blind arcade may resemble several {{vanchor|blind window}}s (false/blank windows or sealed-up windows){{cite book |last=Harris |first=Cyril M. |title=Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Architecture |date=2013 |publisher=Courier |isbn=978-0-486-13211-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kp_DAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT156 |quote=Blank arcade. Same as blind arcade. […] blank/blind/false window. 1. A recess […] having the external appearance of a window. 2. A window which has been sealed off but is still visible.}} or blind niches that are side by side.
Examples
Blind arcades are a common decorative features on the facades of Romanesque and Gothic buildings throughout Western Europe, and are also a common feature in Byzantine Orthodox churches in Eastern Europe, and in Armenian churches.
Image:Camposanto Pisa 100.JPG|Camposanto Monumentale,
Pisa, Italy
Image:Canton Viaduct.jpg|Canton Viaduct,
Canton, Massachusetts, USA
Image:CordobaMezquita01.jpg|Córdoba, Spain
Image:Blind arcade, Norwich Cathedral.jpg|Norwich Cathedral, Norfolk, United Kingdom
Image:Absida maior Colexiata de Sar.JPG|Apse interior of Church of Santa María a Real do Sar,
Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Image:Canterbury Cathedral 11 norman arcade.jpg|Canterbury Cathedral, England (interlaced arches)
Image:SevillaTorreDelOro10.JPG|Torre del Oro,
Seville, Spain
Image:Apse Santi Pietro Paolo d'Agrò.jpg|Apse exterior of Norman church of Santi Pietro e Paolo d'Agrò,
Casalvecchio Siculo, Sicily
Image:Blindarkad.jpg|Linköping Cathedral, Sweden
Image:Firenze9523.jpg|San Miniato al Monte,
Florence, Italy
Image:Ukraine-Lviv-Armenian_Church-16.jpg|Armenian church,
Lviv, Ukraine
File:MosqueeKairouan 1.jpg|Great Mosque of Kairouan (Mosque of Uqba), Tunisia
File:Ardmore Cathedral West Gable Reliefs 2015 09 15.jpg|Blind arcade on Ardmore Cathedral, Ireland, with sculpted Biblical scenes (12th century)
See also
{{Commons category|Blind arcades}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- Dictionary of French Architecture from the 11th to 16th century/Volume 1/Blind Arcade
- [http://www.virtualani.org/marmashen/index.htm The Monasery of Marmashen]
{{Authority control}}
Category:Arcades (architecture)
{{architecture-stub}}