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A Gargoyle looking down from the York Minster.

The gargoyle often makes his perch on a cathedral or a church, where, mid eclesiastic style he smiles an early Gothic smile.

Gargoyles - grotesquely carved heads of animal or human origin, with or without bodies - originally had a practical use as waterspouts (generally) on sacred buildings, throwing rainwater clear of walls. They were also used as educational devices for a largely illiterate population, and were believed to ward off evil spirits with their own grotesqueness. One of the earliest recorded gargoyles is a Classical Greek lion mask on the Acropolis in Athens dating from the 4th century BC.




Gargoyle | Architecture | Stone | Black | White | York | Minster