Editing Pinnacle (section)

== History ==

The accounts of [[Jesus|Jesus']] [[Temptations of Christ|temptations]] in [[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew's]] and [[Gospel of Luke|Luke's]] gospels both suggest that the [[Second Temple]] in [[Jerusalem]] had one or more pinnacles ({{langx|el|το πτερυγιον του ιερου}}):<ref>On the uncertainty of the meaning of this Greek phrase, see Joachim Jeremias, “Die ,Zinne‘ des Tempels (Mt. 4,5; Lk. 4,9),” ''Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina'' 59.3/4 (1936): 195-208 (for an [https://wholestones.org/the-pinnacle-of-the-temple-matt-45-luke-49/ English translation] of this article, click [https://wholestones.org/the-pinnacle-of-the-temple-matt-45-luke-49/ here]).</ref>
:Then he ([[Satan]]) brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.<ref>{{bibleverse||Luke|4:9|NKJV}}</ref>

Some {{who|date=June 2012}} have stated that there were no pinnacles in the [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] style, but conical caps to circular buttresses, with [[finial]] terminations, are not uncommon in [[France]] at very early periods. [[Eugène Viollet-le-Duc]] gives examples from [[Saint-Germer-de-Fly Abbey]] and the [[Basilica of Saint-Remi]], and there is one of similar form at the west front of [[Rochester Cathedral]].

In the 12th-century Romanesque two examples have been cited, one from [[Bredon]] in [[Worcestershire]], and the other from [[Bishop's Cleeve|Cleeve]] in [[Gloucestershire]]. In these the buttresses run up, forming a sort of square turret, and crowned with a pyramidal cap, very much like those of the next period, the [[Early English Period|Early English]].

[[File:Basilica (arquitetura) PT en.svg|thumb|left|Pinnacles on the top of walls and the corner of flying buttresses]]
In this and the following styles, mainly in [[Gothic architecture]], the pinnacle seems generally to have had its appropriate uses. It was a weight to counteract the [[thrust]] of the [[Vault (architecture)|vaults]], particularly where there were [[flying buttress]]es; it stopped the tendency to slip of the stone copings of the [[gable]]s, and counterpoised the thrust of [[spire]]s; it formed a pier to steady the elegant perforated [[parapet]]s of later periods; and in France especially served to counterbalance the weight of overhanging [[corbel]] tables, huge [[gargoyle]]s, etc.

In the Early English period the small buttresses frequently finished with [[Glossary of architecture#G|gablet]]s, and the more important with pinnacles supported with clustered shafts. At this period the pinnacles were often supported on these shafts alone, and were open below; and in larger work in this and the subsequent periods they frequently form niches and contain statues. About the Transition and during the [[Decorated Gothic|Decorated Gothic period]], the different faces above the angle shafts often finish with gablets. Those of the last-named period are much richer, and are generally decorated with [[crocket]]s and finials, and sometimes with [[ball flower]]s. Very fine groups are found at [[Beverley Minster]] and at the rise of the spire of [[University Church of St Mary the Virgin|St Mary's, Oxford]]. Perpendicular pinnacles differ but little from Decorated, except that the crockets and finials are of later character. They are also often set angle-ways, particularly on parapets, and the shafts are panelled.

In France pinnacles, like spires, seem to have been in use earlier than in England. There are small pinnacles at the angles of the tower in the [[Saintes Cathedral]]. At [[Roullet-Saint-Estèphe]] there are pinnacles in a similar position, each composed of four small shafts, with caps and bases surmounted with small pyramidal spires. In all these examples the towers have semicircular-headed windows.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="160">
File:Notre-Dame de Paris composite transverse section.svg|The early-Gothic Notre-Dame de Paris. Arrows show forces (black:forces of cathedral on the ground, green: forces of ground on cathedral). The weight of pinnacles helps keep the [[line of thrust]] inside the buttress.
File:View west along Duomo roof, Milan.jpg|Pinnacles with statues on the roof of [[Milan Cathedral]]
File:Cathédrale de Saintes (France)nnn.JPG|Pinacles at [[Saintes Cathedral]]
File:Die Votivkirche in Wien; Denkschrift des Baucomit'es veröffentlicht zur Feier der Einweihung am 24. April 1879 (1879) (14597612677).jpg|Architectural drawing of a [[Neo-Gothic]] flying buttress with pinnacles for the late 19th-century [[Votive Church, Vienna|Votive Church]], in Vienna.
</gallery>