Gargoyles are sculptures of animals, or sometimes people, that conceal rainwater spouts on cathedrals and other buildings. These spouts direct rainwater away from the walls of the building in order to reduce erosion of the stone. The word gargoyle comes from the French word gargouiller /gaʁguije/, which means throat or gullet. Chimera or Grotesques are sculptures usually composed of body parts from several different animals that serve a purely decorative purpose on the cathedral. Images from Notre Dame and Sacre-Coeur Cathedrals, located in Paris, are included in this gallery.
Most people refer to all of the carved images of humans or animals on cathedrals as “gargoyles”, but many do not carry water and are for decorative purposes. Thus they are truly not gargoyles, but rather they are known as Grotesques or Chimera. In medieval times the Gargoyles and Chimera on cathedrals were believed to frighten away evil spirits.
The photos are arranged into two galleries. The first gallery includes images of Gargoyles and Grotesques that have been hand-tinted using Photoshop. The second gallery consists of color images of both Gargoyles and Grotesques. The images shown in the galleries contain watermarks and are low-resolution. Images on ordered prints will be from high-resolution scans and will not contain watermarks.