Archway (architecture)

Arcade in Bissone , Ticino

In architecture, an archway (also "arcade" or " arcade ") is a corridor that is open on one side and that lies like a loggia within the cubature of one or more buildings . The open side is formed by a series of adjacent arcades . Sometimes only the most important building of an ensemble is provided with arched arcades, while the less significant neighboring buildings are provided with wooden or stone supports that support horizontal ceilings or architraves .

Arches are often located on the representative front facade of buildings along the street or in a square and, as an urban planning element, often encompass the ground floor level of entire streets. This creates a weather-protected public traffic area.

role models

As there are no ancient or high medieval examples of such arcades, only the cloisters of medieval monasteries can be considered as architectural models that are closest in terms of space and time. This may be one of the reasons that such constructions are predominantly found in southern Europe.

Germany and the Alps

A distinction is made between houses that were built or rebuilt in the Middle Ages or in the early modern period, arcades of the southern type that were built in the course of the construction of houses, such as in the old town of Bern , in Bozen , Meran , Trient or Glurns . The so-called “Gothic” or “German” arbors are of more recent origin. These were subsequently added to the houses in order to enlarge the living space above them, for example in Innsbruck and Neumarkt in South Tyrol . This led to a subsequent narrowing of streets. Externally, the arbors can hardly be distinguished because the house facades and the roof trusses were mostly redrawn in the course of the renovation. On closer inspection, however, you can see that existing cellar shafts in German arcades, which were not built under a cellar, therefore open upwards in the (later) built-up space, while the arbors built in the course of the building of the house have a cellar and thus the cellar shafts are on the outside.

The arcs on the street side were not all as continuous as they are presented to today's pedestrians and also appear in the pictures, but there were often so-called benches made of wood or stone on which trading was carried out. So there was the "meat bank", the "bread bank" and others. Usually these benches were removed later. In the South Tyrolean town of Glurns in Vinschgau you can still see such old benches in the arcade.

Rest of Europe

In Northern Italy, France (e.g. Place des Vosges ), Flanders or Spain (e.g. in Madrid , Salamanca or Cordoba ), squares, ensembles of buildings or streets are designed in this way. Further plants can be found in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and the Baltic States.