What is a round-arched frieze?
A round-arched frieze is an arched frieze made up of small linked round arches — semicircles. It usually forms a horizontal band closing the top of a façade, directly under the eaves or cornice line. That distinguishes it from the pointed-arched frieze and from the interlaced arch frieze, whose arches cross one another.
Form and execution
The little arches rest on small corbels, or they spring from short pilaster strips. They may be blind — flat against the wall, with or without a recessed panel — or actually open as a gallery. The scale is small: one arch rarely spans more than one or two header widths, which makes the frieze purely decorative with no load-bearing role.
Forms you will meet:
- In moulded brick. Specially moulded or cut bricks form the arch segments; on richer façades they are profiled.
- In natural stone, carved from a single block per arch or per pair.
- Combined, with stone corbels and brick arches.
- Rising. Where the frieze follows the slope of a gable, the arches step upwards; this is called a rising or climbing arched frieze.
Style and dating
The round-arched frieze is one of the standard ornaments of Romanesque architecture, and in northern Germany and the northern Netherlands it was used freely in Romano-Gothic and brick Gothic work as well. It returned in the nineteenth century in the Romanesque Revival.
Examples include Durham Cathedral, Speyer Cathedral and the Basilica of Saint Servatius in Maastricht, where round-arched friezes occur at several levels.
Application and maintenance
In practice the frieze is chiefly a vulnerable detail. The tops of the arches form a series of small horizontal surfaces where water stands. So watch for:
- Water loading. Without a working cornice, coping or lead flashing above the frieze, the masonry saturates and the brick spalls in frost.
- Moulded bricks are not a stock item. Repair means reproducing or cutting arches to the existing profile, so measure and photograph before removing anything.
- Point soft. A round-arched frieze normally sits in old, soft masonry; repair with lime mortar, not cement.
Related terms
- Arched frieze
- Interlaced arch frieze
- Round arch
- Pilaster strip
- Cornice
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