Possumblog

Obscure Architectural Term of the Day!

CLERESTORY (or CLEARSTORY). The upper stage of the main walls of a church above the aisle roofs, pierced by windows; the same term is applicable in domestic building. In Romanesque architecture it often has a narrow wall passage on the inside.

From the Penguin Dictionary of Architecture, Third Edition.

This is one of those that you probably know it to look at it, but might not have known it had a name.

Here's an example from the Orvieto Cathedral, (from this website), and here's one apparently intended to cause maximum visual discomfort. (Note especially the ability of the car and shrubbery to cast shadows in directions not at all related to those cast by the building. Nor, for that matter, to each other.)

Posted by Terry Oglesby at January 11, 2006 02:13 PM