architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

, a semicircular arch is an

arch An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but stru ...

with an intrados (inner surface) shaped like a semicircle. This type of arch was adopted and very widely used by the Romans, thus becoming permanently associated with Roman architecture.

Terminology

When the arch construction involves the Roman techniques (either wedge-like stone voussoirs or thin Roman bricks), it is known as a Roman arch. The semicircular arch is also known as a round arch.

Description

The rise (height) of a round arch is limited to of its span, so it looks more "grounded" than a parabolic arch or a pointed arch. Whenever a higher semicircular arch was required (for example, for a narrow arch to match the height of a nearby broad one), either stilting or horseshoe shape were used, thus creating a stilted arch and horseshoe arch respectively. These "shifts and dodges" were immediately dropped once the pointed arch with its malleable proportions was adopted. Still, "the Romanesque arch is beautiful as an abstract line. Its type is always before us in that of the apparent vault of heaven, and horizon of the earth" (

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...

, " The Seven Lamps of Architecture").

A round arch that sits atop the corbels, with corbels rounded to create a bell-like shape of intrados, is called a bell arch. When the architecture of the building dictates the rise of the arch to be less than of its span (for example, in Roman residential construction), a segmental arch with a rounded shape that is less than a semicircle can be used.

History and associated styles

The popularity of the semicircular arch is based on simplicity of its layout and construction, not superior structural properties. The sides of this arch swing wider than the perfect funicular curve and therefore experience a bending moment with the force directed outwards. To prevent buckling, heavy surcharge (fill), so called

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame, between the tops of two adjacent arches, or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fil ...

, needs to be applied outside of the haunches. In addition to the Imperial Roman construction, round arches are also associated with

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

, Romanesque (and Neo-Romanesque),

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

and Rundbogenstil styles. While the semicircular arch was known in the Greek architecture, it mostly played there a decorative, not structural, role.

Gallery

File:Pont du Gard-PM 48601.jpg, Roman architecture ( Pont du Gard) File:Church of Christ Pantocrator Nesebar.jpg,

Byzantine architecture Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, or Eastern Roman Empire, usually dated from 330 AD, when Constantine the Great established a new Roman capital in Byzantium, which became Constantinople, until the Fall of Cons ...

( Church of Christ Pantocrator) File:Plassac-Rouffiac église 2012.jpg,

Romanesque architecture Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe that was predominant in the 11th and 12th centuries. The style eventually developed into the Gothic style with the shape of the arches providing a simple distinction: the Ro ...

( :fr:Église Saint-Cybard de Plassac-Rouffiac) File:Claustro del Monasterio de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Almagro, Ciudad Real).jpg,

Renaissance architecture Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...

(bottom colonnade, :es:Convento de la Asunción (Almagro)) File:Paris - Les Invalides - Cours d'honneur - PA00088714 - 0002.jpg,

Neoclassical architecture Neoclassical architecture, sometimes referred to as Classical Revival architecture, is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy, France and Germany. It became one of t ...

( Hôtel des Invalides) File:Uni KA Portal.jpg, Rundbogenstil ( Karlsruhe Polytechnic) File:Waldschmidt (West) Hall east entrance - University of Portland.jpg,

Modernist architecture Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, or the modern movement, is an architectural architectural movement, movement and architectural style, style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco Architectu ...

( University of Portland)

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * {{cite book , last=Davies , first=N. , last2=Jokiniemi , first2=E. , title=Architect's Illustrated Pocket Dictionary , publisher=Taylor & Francis , year=2012 , isbn=978-1-136-44407-4 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WNosBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA41 , access-date=2024-07-04 , chapter = bell arch Arches and vaults Ancient Roman architecture Architectural history