Category: Gargoyle of the Day
-
Gargoyles and Grotesques of Tullgarns Slott, Södermanland, Sweden
Tullgarns Slott (Tullgarn Palace, in English) is an elegant summer palace of Swedish monarchy, built in the 1720s. Tullgarn is a mixture of several architectural styles and has beautiful wrought iron work, including these unusual-yet-functional gargoyles. The cream and peace Neo-Classical palace exterior (image below) hardly looks like someplace where one might find gargoyles, but here they are! I love…
-
Gargoyles and Grotesques of St. Vitus, Prague
The rooster is one of early Italian St. Vitus’s attributes, so it’s quite fitting that a rooster gargoyle can be found on his beautiful Gothic church in Prague. Some people think that this figure depicts an eagle. I disagree, but I can understand how one might come to that conclusion without knowing about the saint’s association to the rooster.…
-
Grotesques of the Old Philadelphia Fire Department Headquarters
A fire house is one of the last places I would expect to see gargoyles, or even not-quite-three-dimensional grotesque carvings, but a set of six firefighter grotesques can be found on the old Race Street Firehouse in Philadelphia. These droll little figures wear old-fashioned fire hats and carry hoses. I believe that the numbers on the hats refer to…
-
Gargoyles and Grotesques of the University of Chicago
I’ve talked about the University of Chicago’s gargoyles before, in a post about collegiate gargoyles. However, I really had no idea at the time how prominent a role these gargoyles play in the school’s culture. Not only is the university’s IT system nicknamed “gargoyle”, but the University of Chicago gargoyle also has his own blog, and the…
-
Gargoyles and Grotesques of Borobudur Temple, Java
Borobudur Temple is a massive Buddhist temple in Java, Indonesia. Built in the ninth century, Borobudur has a complex, tiered design and is richly decorated with hundreds of Buddha statues and thousands of relief-carved scenes depicting important Buddhist stories. It also has stupas and other sculpted imagery including gargoyles. Finding gargoyles, particularly functional gargoyles as these seem to be (rather than purely-decorative grotesques),…
-
Gargoyles and Grotesques of Casa de las Conchas, Salamanca, Spain
This little winged fellow looks like he’s absolutely thrilled with his view from the roofline of the Casa de las Conchas in Salamanca, Spain. This late-fifteenth and early sixteenth-century building is named for its numerous shell-shaped decorations (concha is the Spanish word for shell) – symbols of the Spanish chivalric Order of Santiago de Compostela…
-
Gargoyles and Grotesques of St. Denys, Aswarby, Lincolnshire
This square-ish fellow kind of reminds me of an early video game creature. When I went to get the image link, I noticed it was titled “Hunky Punk”, which I thought was interesting. I googled the term and discovered that “hunky punk” is a term specifically used in Somerset, England to describe grotesques (never true…
-
Gargoyle and Grotesques: Biltmore Estate, North Carolina
An introduction to the grotesques at Biltmore Estate, a huge private home in Ashville, North Carolina, USA.
-
Gargoyles and Grotesques of the Temple of Nike in Sicily
These lion gargoyles come from the Temple of Nike (Victory) at Himera, Sicily. The ancient temple was probably built to commemorate a military victory of the Syracusans (rulers of Sicily) over the Carthaginians c. 480 BCE, though it was destroyed around 408 BCE in another battle that resulted in victory for the Carthaginians. Ruins of…
-
Gargoyles and Grotesques in Quito, Ecuador
You guys should know by now that I love non-European gargoyles, particularly when they take forms distinctly different from what we’re used to seeing. These Ecuadorean gargoyles representing local wildlife certainly fit that bill. Above, we can see several species of bird gargoyles, and below are some other creatures including a pair of alligators. This post on…
-
Gargoyles and Grotesques of Melrose Abbey, Scotland
I’ve recently been reading a book about the history of British myths and legends concerning dragons, so it made sense to me that today’s gargoyle should be from the United Kingdom. I was looking for some sort of dragon-like gargoyle but fell in love with this bagpipe-playing pig instead. Isn’t he charming? I found him via ferrebeekeeper’s blog; look there…
-
Gargoyles and Grotesques of Eastern State Penitentiary, Pennsylvania
I probably should have saved this one for closer to Halloween, but I just couldn’t wait because it’s almost too good to be true. This very threatening-looking, shackled gargoyle can be found on the exterior of the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I’m not sure if the gargoyle is functional or not, but it…
