Architecture: castle stone.

Decorative elements are an important part of the artistic image of the architectural structure. Each architectural style has its own special set of decorative details. One of them is the castle stone. Its significance architects usually showed through a large size.

What is the castle stone in architecture?

So in the structure it is customary to name the element protruding from the plane of the wall, crowning the arch or arch arch. It has usually a wedge shape. It is made of expensive materials. In addition, the decorative castle stone has a functional significance - it strengthens the arch structure in the most unstable, fragile place.

Stone as a symbol

The expression "castle stone" eventually entered our everyday life and became a symbol of strength and stability, based on the most important, central element of the whole "construction." For example, in politics - a society that firmly rests on the strong and wise power of rulers. In Christianity, the "castle stone" is often called the Bible as the basis of religious dogma and the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the foundation of religion. In case of refutation or rejection of this fact, the Christian religion itself would be doomed.

History

Arched constructions were first used in the construction art by the Etruscans. They were adopted later by the ancient Romans and revered for a miracle. That is why the ceremony of bookmarking the arch stone structure of the castle stone was accompanied by ritual activities. This part was made by Romans from expensive rocks and wood. At that time, the castle stone was not superimposed on the arch structure. He wedged it into a wedge in such a way that he became her strut and took over most of the burden of the arch on the pillars.

Castle stone: type, purpose

As for the decorative decoration of the structure, the castle stones are simple, consisting of three parts wedge shaped, the central of which protrudes more than the side. Often decorated with relief or mascaron - a relief image of the muzzle of an animal or a person's face.

Animals motifs in the design of the castle stones had a symbolic meaning, similar in meaning to the ancient amulets, depicted on the "towels" - the boards that connect the joints of the roofs of the roof of the front facade of the hut. In both cases, they performed a protective function. And on the castle stone could be placed a sign containing information about the author of the building. Something like a brand or a monogram. This tradition has been preserved since the Middle Ages. The most common image of lion's muzzles. After all, it was the lions that were the traditional symbol of steadfastness, strength, courage and courage, as well as power in medieval cities. They guarded the entrance to the houses of nobles and depicted even on the entrance pens.

Use in style directions of Petersburg

Emerged on the banks of the Neva, the new European city of St. Petersburg at the first stage had a mazarkovaya and wooden buildings. However, after 1718 on Vasilievsky Island, and a little later on the left bank, began to build stone type houses designed by the first architect of the city Domenico Trezzini. The style of St. Petersburg in the first quarter of the 18th century is usually called the Petrine or early Russian Baroque. One of the characteristic decorative elements were simple window frames with "ears" in the corners. The other is the castle stone in the center of the upper crossbar of the clypeus or above it. This decorative stone at that time was very laconic and, as a rule, was not decorated with any delicacies.

In the era of Elizabeth Petrovna, the castle stones began to have a more decorative appearance. They were decorated with vertical grooves, coats of arms and relief embellishments, ornaments, and sometimes they were completely replaced with stucco molding. During this period, the facades of the buildings were erupted with windows of various shapes, including in the form of a semicircular arch, where the castle stone found its "refuge". By the way, it was the first time that it was used on arches of this type - even in ancient times, usually in classical architecture.

Since the 1830s in St. Petersburg, classicism, in the decoration of which the castle stones were executed mainly in the form of mascarons, gradually replaced by the following style - eclecticism. Within the framework of this style, there was a direction of "historicism", reviving in new combinations and senses the decorative elements of the previous architectural styles. On the buildings of this period, you can also find a variety of types of decorative castle stones.

And at the beginning of the 20th century, in the architecture of the Northern Art Nouveau, castle stones began to be shaped using plant and zoomorphic motifs.