the.com/colonnade
a row of columns marching nowhere, holding up the sky for the price of awe
means A colonnade is a long row of evenly spaced columns, usually supporting a roof or a series of arches, running along or around a building.
from From French 'colonnade', built on Italian 'colonnato', which traces back to Latin 'columna' — a pillar or column — itself thought to be related to 'columen', meaning a peak or summit, the thing that crowns and holds aloft. The '-ade' ending is the same architectural suffix that gives us 'arcade' and 'balustrade', a French habit of bundling repeated structural elements into one sweeping word.
- origin
- From Italian colonnato, columns standing in disciplined formation
- function
- Shaded walkways letting ancients stroll without melting
- vatican giant
- Bernini's St. Peter's Square wields 284 columns
- optical trick
- Greeks tapered columns to fool the squinting eye
- hidden math
- Entasis curves them so straight lines look straight
for instance
parthenon colonnade — 46 doric columns surrounding the ancient greek temple on the acropolis, athens, built 447-432 bce