SPIRE

This article appears in Volume V25, Page 693 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SOU-STE

SPIRE (O. Eng. spir, a blade of grass, and so anything tapering
f/G 2.
Salisbury an octagonal pinnacle at the angle and a triangular spire light against the spire. The happiest combination of all, however, is perhaps the spire of St Mary's, Oxford, with three ranges of angle niche-groups set one behind the other, forming with the centre spire a magnificent cluster of spires; the niche gables and pinnacles are all enriched with crockets and the ball flower in the arch mouldings.
Reference has already been made to two of the French spires, at Chartres and St Denis; there is nothing like the diversity of design in France, however, when compared with those in England, and there are but few on the crossing of nave and transept; the towers were built to receive them, as at Amiens, Reims and Beauvais, but for some reason not carried above the roof, possibly from some doubt as to the expediency of raising stone lanterns and spires of great weight on the four piers of the crossing; on the other hand their places were taken by constructions in timber covered with lead, of immense height and fine design. There was a 13th-century fleche on the crossing of Notre-Dame, Paris, taken down soon after the beginning of the 19th century, of which the existing example by Viollet-le-Duc is a copy. The same fate befell that over the Sainte Chapelle, Paris, being reconstructed about 185o by Lassus. The fleche at Amiens, though of

late

LATE

date (c. 1500), is still in good preservation and is a remarkable

work

WORK

; above the ridges of the roofs of nave and transept, and octagonal in plan, are two stages, the upper one set back to allow of a passage round, and, above the cresting of the latter, a lofty octagonal spire with spire lights at the base on each side, crockets up the angles, and other decorations in the lead

work

WORK

with which it is covered. Including the vane, from the

ridge

of roof the height is 182 ft. Of timber fleches covered with slates there are many examples in the north of France, those at Orbais (Marne) and the abbey at Eu (Seine Inferieure) being the best known. Returning to stone spires, those on the west front of St Stephen's, Caen (Abbaye-aux-Hommes), are good examples with lofty octagonal turrets and pinnacles at west angle and spire light between, and among others are those of St Pierre at Caen, Senlis, Coutances, Bayeux, and many others in Calvados, and at Soissons, Noyon and Laon in Picardy. One of the most beautiful spires in France, though of

late

LATE

date, is that of the north-west tower to Chartres Cathedral. In the south of France, in the Charente and Perigord, the stone spire takes quite another form, being of much less height, of convex form, and studded with small scales, giving somewhat the appearance of a pine

cone

CONE (Gr. Kwvos)

, with small pinnacles also with scales, and carried on a group of shafts at the angles of the tower. The west tower of

Angouleme

ANGOULEME
ANGOULEME, CHARLES DE VALOIS, DUKE OF (1573-1650)

Cathedral, the central towers of Saintes Le Palud, and Plassac in the Charente, and the tower of St Front, Perigueux, and Brantome in Perigord, have all spires of this kind, of which a small example crowns the Lanterne des Morts at Cellefrouin. The German towers are generally covered with roofs only, of varied form, but at Ulm, Strassburg, Freiburg and Cologne is a remarkable

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of traceried spires in stone, of great elaboration and showing great masonic ability, but wanting in repose and solidarity, and the same applies to the spire at Antwerp. In Spain there are not many examples of note, the spire at Burgos suggesting in its outline and want of height the influence of the Perigordian spires, and that at Salamanca the influence of those in the north of France.
Looking upon the spire as the crowning feature of a tower, those of the Renaissance period must be included here, though as a compromise they are often termed " steeples." Of these the finest and most varied are those by Wren in London, among which that of Bow Church and St Bride's,

Fleet

FLEET

Street, are the best known, the former with two stages of lanterns with detached columns round, and the latter octagonal on plan with five stages, set one behind the other, with arches in centre of each face and pilasters at the angles. St Antholin, now destroyed, was the only example based on a

Gothic

GOTHIC

prototype; it consisted of an octagonal spire with Renaissance spire lights and angle finials resting on the upper octagonal storeys of the tower. St Margaret Pattens somewhat resembles it, but thetower has a balustrade round and the angle pinnacles are in the form of obelisks, a favourite Renaissance interpretation of the

Gothic

GOTHIC

finial, which is found in other churches, as in those of St Martins-in-the-Fields by Gibbs and St Giles-in-the-Fields by Flitcroft. Hawksmoor apparently based his spire of St George's, Bloomsbury, which consists of a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of lofty steps, and is crowned with a statue of George I., on that of the mausoleum at

Halicarnassus

HALICARNASSUS (mod. Budrum)

. In France, Italy and Spain, lanterns usually terminate the towers. The spire of the Seo at

Saragossa

in design somewhat resembles those of Wren, being one of the few examples worth noting. (R. P. S.)

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