Blind arcade

Blind arcade, Vézelay Abbey, 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 blind windows (false/blank windows or sealed-up windows) 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.

See also

• Dwarf gallery
• Flying butress

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  Camposanto Monumentale,
  Pisa, Italy

• 

  Canton Viaduct,
  Canton, Massachusetts

• 

  Córdoba, Spain

• 

  Norwich Cathedral, Norfolk, United Kingdom

• 

  Apse interior of Church of Santa María a Real do Sar,
  Santiago de Compostela, Spain

• 

  Canterbury Cathedral, England

• 

  Torre del Oro,
  Seville, Spain

• 

  Apse exterior of Norman church of Santi Pietro e Paolo d'Agrò,
  Casalvecchio Siculo, Sicily

• 

  Linköping Cathedral, Sweden

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  San Miniato al Monte,
  Florence, Italy

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  Armenian church,
  Lviv, Ukraine

• 

  Great Mosque of Kairouan (Mosque of Uqba), Tunisia

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  Blind arcade on Ardmore Cathedral, Ireland, with sculpted Biblical scenes (12th century)

External links

• Dictionary of French Architecture from the 11th to 16th century/Volume 1/Blind Arcade
• The Monasery of Marmashen