Question about medieval architecture and gargoyles?

Question

Is it true that on medieval churches it was common to place a gargoyle on the west side?

A church at my school campus has a gargoyle on the west side. There is an interesting rumor as to why it's only on the west but it was said that there was no truth to this because of the above reason.

Answer 1

Gargoyles were placed on buildings as a gutter for rain to fall off the roof. They were called gargoyles because of the noise the water made as it flowed off the gutter. It doesn't say which side they were placed on, but they were there.

Definition
A spout usually carved in the shape of a human, animal or demon, and connected to a gutter for throwing rain water from the roof of a building; although later examples - particularly in the Gothic Revival of the 19th century - served as merely decoration and served no earthly function. Today, they are associated with close cousins the grotesques, and Green Men.


The gargoyle often makes his perch
On a cathedral or a church
Where, mid eclesiastic style
He smiles an early Gothic smile.


- Oliver Herford

Answer 2

You will find one at the spout of every water trough on a church, not just on one side. To begin with they served a purpose but eventually became decorative and represented a means of escape for the devil, stopping evil forces from getting into the church.

Of course, churches have an east-west orientation for the rising and setting of the sun, with the alter in the east, so there does tend to be a lot of decoration on the west side and the main door, which is the face that most people see as the enter the church.

Answer 3

I don't remember studying about them being on the west side... but I do remember seeing them on the outside of the buttrices on a cathedral in England. They were on both sides and essentially "spit" the water off of the roof when it rained.

Answer 4

definite, the form does influence human beings extraordinarily church homes making human beings extra pious and nevertheless human beings are available the type of tourism for that very objective to make certain it. human beings flow to Arab castles in Spain, the Pyramids of Egypt, or perhaps graveyards to make certain medieval graves.

Answer 5

They wre placed on all sides (look at Notre Dame)

Answer 6

seems so