Decorative feature formed by a succession of small arches, particularly on a façade.

A flattened arch, less than semi-circular in cross-section.

A pillar or column for support of a handrail.

A continuous parapet sustained by a row of balusters at regular intervals.

A circular or oval opening or window for the passage of light or air. There may be decorative variations on the basic form, including the Four-lobed bull's eye, made up of four interconnecting broken arches.

Sculpture of human or mythological figure used as structural support.

Style developed above all in France in the 17th and 18th centuries, morphologically faithful to the intellectual purity of the Renaissance. According to Wolfflin, the baroque is pictorial ("painterly") and develops in depth, while the classical is linear and plastic, static and closed.

For portuguese colonial architecture, see Luso-Brazilian.

Resembling the Doric in base and acanthus leaves.

Column with base set directly on the ground; the shaft is chanelled and the capital formed of one circular element with a horizontal plaque on top. This is the Doric-Roman version, the commonest in Brazil.

Similar to the Doric, but with a smooth shaft. This is the simplest of the classical orders of architecture.

The upper part of the entablature (q.v.), a series of mouldings to crown any work of architecture.

A representative image of a real or symbolic person, specially in relief.

The set of horizontal elements (architrave, frieze and cornice) between a colonnade and the pediment (q.v.) above.

A salon, in a theatre, where spectators could repair during the intervals of a play.

Upper part of opening, incorporated in fixed or moving structure, for illumination or ventilation; often with glass, wrought iron etc.

The roots of this type of architecture are lost in time, and are most easily recognized in civil architecture, above all in the ordinary style of Portuguese urban centers. The formal constants are simple to recognize: the compact arrangement of houses along a street, the geometrical purity of the façades, the submission of horizontals to flat wall spaces, the predominance of smooth stone surfaces, the use of projecting roofs etc. Traditional Brazilian houses are modest anonymous constructions, all like each other, wich do little or nothing to attract the attention.

Element in architecture, in the shape of an isosceles triangle and corresponding on a façade to the gable formed by the angles of the roof. A pediment is usually finished with mouldings, and the tympanum, or inner surface, is often decorated. Found on façades, porticos, doors, windows and niches for sculptures.

A pediment shaped like a segment of a circle rather than a triangle.

A continuous row of columns around a building or courtyard; sometimes a line of columns across a façade.

As above, with acanthus leaves on the capital, a channeled shaft and a base.

Standard Portuguese for Square.

A decorative naked cherub, renaissance in origin and inspired by rendering of Eros.

Decorative grille to allow warm air to escape from the upper part of the hall; it usually surrounds the suspension point for chandelier.

Standar Portuguese for Street.

Designed based on a jeweller's engraving stylus.

Space (triangular or rounded) enclosed by pediment, often with decoration.

A flattened vault, less than semi-circular in cross-section.

Area between from entrance of theatre and main staircase.