A portal is an opening in a wall of a building, gate or fortification, especially a grand entrance to an important structure. Doors, metal

gate A gate or gateway is a point of entry to or from a space enclosed by walls. The word derived from old Norse "gat" meaning road or path; But other terms include '' yett and port''. The concept originally referred to the gap or hole in the wal ...

s, or portcullis in the opening can be used to control entry or exit. The surface surrounding the opening may be made of simple building materials or decorated with ornamentation. The elements of a portal can include the

voussoir A voussoir () is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault. Although each unit in an arch or vault is a voussoir, two units are of distinct functional importance: the keystone and the springer. The ...

, tympanum, an ornamented

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

or ''trumeau'' between doors, and

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

s with carvings of saints in the westwork of a church.

Examples

File:Baroque portal in Brescia.jpg, Baroque portal of a private palace in

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Ise ...

File:Dülmen, St.-Viktor-Kirche, Eingangsportal -- 2021 -- 4504-10.jpg, Wooden portal of the Church of St. Victor in Dülmen File:Porto - Sant Martí de Cedofeita - Façana principal.JPG, Romanesque portal of the Church of São Martinho de Cedofeita, with nested

arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vau ...

es File:Hronsky Benadik-Hlavny portal klastorneho kostola.jpg, Gothic portal of the church in Hronský Beňadik File:FI-Tampere-2019-09-08T153429EEST lc.JPG, Romantic portal of the St. John's Cathedral in

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclo ...

File:Metz Cathédrale St. Étienne Portal 2.jpg, Gothic portal of the Cathedral of Saint Stephen in

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand Est ...

File:Karaman Hatuniye Medresi 4812.jpg, ''Taşkapı'' (stone gatehouse) of the Hatuniye Medresesi in

Karaman Karaman, historically known as Laranda (Greek: Λάρανδα), is a city in south central Turkey, located in Central Anatolia, north of the Taurus Mountains, about south of Konya. It is the capital district of the Karaman Province. According ...

File:Murad darvazası.JPG, Murad's Gate in the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, Baku

Other uses

The term ''portal'' is also applied to the ends of a

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

References

{{Authority control Doors

Examples

Other uses

See also

References