A knotted column is a twisted cluster column in which the intertwined shafts appear to be tied into a knot halfway up. Above and below the knot the strands run normally to base and capital; in the middle they thicken and interlace into a knot.
It is almost always carved from a single stone. The knot is therefore not a structural element but an ornament — and a difficult one to cut, which is exactly what made it a showpiece. The motif was traditionally credited with a protective meaning: a knot was thought to ward off evil.
Where you find it
- Cloister arcades, above all in Romanesque and early Gothic monasteries in Italy, France and Spain
- Church portals and facade articulation
- Free-standing columns along pilgrim routes and at churches
- Nineteenth-century Romanesque and Gothic revival architecture, which took the motif up again
In English the term twisted column is used both for this type and for the single spiral shaft, so it is too general to identify a type on its own.
Practical tips
- Treat the knot as the weakest point — it contains the most interrupted bedding planes and the smallest sections; cracks nearly always start there
- Clean without high pressure — dirt collects in the deep hollows, but pressure washing strips the soft surface exactly there
- Record it before dismantling — the precise run of the strands varies from column to column and cannot be reconstructed later without photographs and measurements
- Never replace one column in a row with a plain standard shaft — the motif only works as a rhythm across the whole arcade
Related terms
- Twisted cluster column
- Column
- Twisted column
- Shaft
- Capital
- Column base
- Coupled columns
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