At the 12th century the first examples appeared: the watch turrets (or bartisans) with machicolation (1), made of freestone. They were intended to facilitate the surveillance and the defence of the fortified castles.
It is necessary to distinguish the watch turrets that were only intended for the long distance surveillance, from those used at the same time for observing and for defending. "It was particularly near the gates, at the angles of the big structures, at the top of the keeps that one built watch turrets" Viollet-Le-Duc. One also finds them in some Parisian mansions (2 et 3).

In the 14th century, the Ponte Vecchio in Florence (5), stone bridge which spans the river Arno was many times destroyed and rebuilt, always threatened by the risings. After that of 1333 the bridge was widened and consolidated by the architect Taddeo Gaddi. It is the bridge which we admire today. It is at the same time a meeting place and an animated market. At its ends, hotels, banks and restaurants are spread to rest on wooden consoles. The Petit Pont in Paris was, before the fire of/in 1718, not only a crossing tool but also an lively space where houses spread resting on brackets (4).

In the 15th century, the desire to gain room in the houses by corbelling over the street is common to all the old cities surrounded by fortifications (6 et 7). All these timber constructions have simple or richly decorated corbellings.

In the 17th century, one finds splendid examples of corbellings in Alsace (8), in Normandie (9). Often balconies and loggias were carried by extensions of the joists that acted as console overhanging the frontage wall.

The oriel, enclosed balcony which can be described as "balcony of the cold areas", extends the room. It improves its lighting and allows to look at the street from two or three sides at the same time.

At the end of the 19th century, a new fashion is born: that of the bow-window (10), formula of English origin. It appears around the years 1885-1890 in the wet English climate, like an essential heat collector, and was introduced into Parisian architecture through the large aristocratic town houses, whose mode does not stop during all the second Empire. At the end of this long change, the bow-window became a glass cage. One will therefore build on each floor stone balconies; each with a bow-window. The advantage of this fore-building is to enhance the inside (light, side views on the public highway). It determines a new type of frontage which juts out strongly, it integrates in its structure the balcony supports that are located in the same plan, and it is supported by enormous brackets in the base.
The urban scene grows rich by sculptures located at the ground floor and mezzanine levels, the atlantes (11) and caryatids determine reference elements for the beautiful haussmannian buildings.

In the 20th century, about 1900, the Art Nouveau develops in decorative arts and architecture. Guimard (12) is the best known of these architects (H. Sauvage, F. Jordain, J. Lavirotte) who take as a starting point Viollet-Le-Duc's theories and his taste for the medieval decoration. They want to control all the details of buildings (13) designed like works of art.

With the modern movement the principle of the curtain wall comes to mask the corbellings.

From the eighties on, some rehabilitation and restoration (14) works include the introduction of corbellings. One finds them in the rehabilitation of the buildings of large housing estates (15) that makes it possible to enlarge the main rooms of the flats and to break the monotony of the frontages. The Coeur Défense project (16) by the architect J.P Viguier, uses the principle of corbelling to recreate human scale in pedestrian spaces.


Cf. ATLANTE TELAMON, FORE-BUILDING, BALCONY, BOW-WINDOW, CARYATID, CONSOLE, CORBEL, WATCH TURRET, FRONTAGE, LOGGIA, ORIEL, REFERENCE MARK