Medieval architecture was the art of designing and constructing buildings in the Middle Ages. Major styles of the period include pre-Romanesque, Romanesque, and Gothic. The Renaissance marked the end of the medieval period, when architects began to favour classical forms. While most surviving medieval constructions are churches and military fortifications, examples of civic and domestic architecture can be found throughout Europe, including in manor houses, town halls, almshouses, bridges, and residential houses.
12th-century romanesque nave of Durham Cathedral.
Early medieval secular architecture in pre-romanesque Spain: the palace of Santa María del Naranco, c. 850.
Cloisters of Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy, France.
Zvolen Castle in Slovakia strongly inspired by Italian castles of the fourteenth century
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the structure. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger" in England.
An interior look at the roof of a corbelled house in South Africa
Corbels quarried for London Bridge but unused; Swell Tor quarry, Dartmoor
Romanesque corbel table featuring erotic scenes at Colegiata de Cervatos, near Santander, Spain
Corbelled arch at the Royal Palace of Ugarit, 2nd millennium BC
