here is savannah!!

Two of them!!!

Gargoyles scare me..

another one!!

They were first used as an archetectural element to manage water off of a roof. There is a great wikipedia article at the link below. Of course, I prefer stone lions!

Carolyn, have you never seen the movie where gargoyles come to life and swoop down on people.
Bev

I heard that the gargoyles were supposed to ward off evil spirits. Has anybody else heard of this?

Carolyn, your GD is beautiful. The gargoyles are truly ugly.

We tend to call any piece of architectural sculpture that depicts animals a gargoyle. Strictly speaking, however, gargoyles are decorative waterspouts that preserve stonework by diverting the flow of rainwater away from buildings. The word, gargoyle, derives from the French gargouille, or throat, from which the verb, to gargle, also originates. Although the sculptural waterspout originated in Antiquity, it grew in popularity on Romanesque structures, and proliferated during the Gothic period. Grotesques, while similar in appearance, serve a variety of other practical and ornamental functions, as corbels or capitals, for instance. The term, grotesque, can apply to any fanciful human or animal form, especially when it indulges in caricature or absurdity. These sculptural creatures appear most commonly on religious structures, but also on university buildings, town halls and even on homes.

School sure has changed since my day. Our high school class trip was to a state park. Now they take 8th graders to Washington DC and trips overseas. She is very lucky to go on such a trip
Bev

Savannah is beautiful. I like gargoyles actually but my hubby hate them more than he hate gnomes! I find them very interesting.

Dragons, griffins, monkeys, gargoyles come in any shape you can dream of (or have nightmares about!), but far more decorative then a lead pipe! Nowadays modern looking ones are sometimes added during restoration when the old ones are to damaged. Made of sandstone they unfortunately deteriorate by acid rain and polluted air.
So nearly all cathedrals have some restoration work going on continuously - at great cost.

In the Netherlands the restoration of St. Jan's cathedral (cost € 8.8 million) was finally finished this month - five angels had to be replaced (they are lower down the building) one of them a very lovely statue holding a mobile phone!

The medieval stonemasons who carved the decorations on the cathedrals used members of their family as models for the carving. They used the ones they liked for the angels and cherubs and the ones they were not so keen on for the gargoyles!

I think they maybe be gargoyles.... on the outside of building to keep the bad spirits away...Hugs Sally

It's a good History lesson! I didnt know the name of those statues either. Your GD is a lucky girl, being in Paris and get to know other cultures. Love,Yoriko

The movies have used them over the yrs to represent horrible, dangerous creatures..thus I do not even like to see one but that was not the original intention for using them on structures. There is a very good explaination for these hideous creatures but whatever the case, they give me the creeps! See post below and there is a good reason for them.