Column Facts for Kids

Column at St Mark's Square in Venice

A column in architecture is a vertical element that transmits the weight of the structure above to the structure below. Columns can be either a single piece or several pieces put together. Columns are frequently used to support beams or arches on which the upper parts of walls or ceilings rest.

History

Stone columns were already used in the architecture of ancient Egypt as early as 2600 BC.

Images for kids

National Capitol Columns at the United States National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.
Columns of the Parliament House in Helsinki, Finland
Column of the Gordon Monument in Waterloo.
Dragon pillar from the Yingzao Fashi, Song dynasty
Plan, front view and side view of a typical Persepolis column, of Persia (Iran)
A granite structure column by Hilma Flodin-Rissanen in Vyborg
Table showing values of K for structural columns of various end conditions (adapted from Manual of Steel Construction, 8th edition, American Institute of Steel Construction, Table C1.8.1)
Illustration of papyriform capitals, in The Grammar of Ornament
Illustration of various types of capitals, drawn by the egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius
Columns with Hathoric capitals
Papyriform columns of the Luxor Temple
Minoan columns at the West Bastion of the Palace of Knossos
Illustration of the end of a Mycenaean column, from the Tomb of Agamemnon
Illustration of the Tuscan order
Illustration of the Doric order
Illustration of the Ionic order
Evolution of the Corinthian order
Illustration of the Composite order
Praying Woman between two ionic columns, 2nd century, marble, in the Louvre
Byzantine columns from Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo (Ravenna, Italy)
The capital of a Byzantine column from Hagia Sophia (Istanbul, Turkey)
Romanesque columns from the 12th century
Gothic columns of a church from Neuwiller-lès-Saverne (France)
Slender Gothic columns at a portal of Marienkirche Gelnhausen [de] (Gelnhausen, Germany)
Column use is common in Ottoman architecture, an example in Topkapı Palace (Istanbul, Turkey)
Decorated pillars. Mosque. Kashgar
The Great Hypostyle Hall from Karnak (Egypt)
Columns found at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi
Rococo detail of a column from St. Peter's Church (Mainz, Germany)
At right, two of the Solomonic columns brought to Rome by Constantine, in their present-day location on a pier in St. Peter's Basilica (Rome). In the foreground at left is part of Bernini's Baldachin, inspired by the original columns.
Ionic capital
Tuscan columns can be seen at the University of Virginia
Church of San Prospero (Reggio Emilia, Italy)
Construction of Sigismund's Column in Warsaw, detail of the 1646 engraving.
These are composed of stacked segments and finished in the Corinthian style, at the Temple of Bel (Syria)
The pillars of Bankstown Reservoir (Sydney, Australia)
Reused Roman columns and capitals in the Great Mosque of Kairouan
Engaged columns embedded in the side walls of the cella of the Maison Carrée in Nîmes (France)

Column facts for kids

History

Images for kids

See also