In particular, the spirelets often built atop the crossings of major churches in mediaeval French Gothic architecture are called flèches. Ī flèche ( French: flèche, lit.'arrow' ) is a name given to spires in Gothic architecture: in French the word is applied to any spire, but in English it has the technical meaning of a spirelet or spike on the rooftop of a building. Crown spires Crown spire on the High Kirk, Edinburgh. The openwork spire, represented a radical but logical extension of the Gothic tendency toward a skeletal structure. Openwork spires were a notable architectural innovation, beginning with the spire at Freiburg Minster, in which the pierced stonework was held together by iron cramps. Finally, in 1668 the architect Christopher Wren designed reinforcing beams which halted the deformation of the structure.
The spire of Salisbury Cathedral, completed in 1320 and 404 feet (123 meters) tall, without the tower, required the addition of buttresses, arches and tie irons to keep it intact. Spires were particularly fragile in the wind, and a number of English Gothic spires collapsed notably that of Malmesbury Abbey (1180–1500) Lincoln Cathedral (which had been the tallest in the world) 1349–1549 and Chichester Cathedral (1402–1861). The western spires of Lichfield Cathedral are an example. In England, a tall needle spire was sometimes constructed at the edge of tower, with pinnacles at the other corners. The spires of the late 13th century achieved great height one example was Fribourg Cathedral in Switzerland, where the gabled lantern and spire reached a height of 385 feet (117 meters). Additional vertical ornament, in the form of slender pinnacles in pyramid shapes, were often placed around the spires, to express the transition between the square base and the octagonal spire. In the 12th and 13th centuries, more ornament was added to the faces of the spires, particularly gabled dormers over the centres of the faces of the towers, as in the southwest tower of Chartres Cathedral. Triangular sections of masonry, called broaches were added to the sides, at an angle to the faces of the tower, as at St Columba, Cologne. Gradually, spires became taller, slimmer, and more complex in form. The spire could be constructed of masonry, as at Salisbury Cathedral, or of wood covered with lead, as at Notre-Dame de Paris. The Gothic church spire originated in the 12th century as a simple, four-sided pyramidal structure on top of a church tower. The Flamboyant Gothic North Tower (finished 1513) (left) and older South Tower (1144–1150) (right) This sense of the word spire is attested in English since the 1590s, spir having been used in Middle Low German since the 14th century, a form related to the Old English word spir, meaning a sprout, shoot, or stalk of grass. Small or short spires are known as spikes, spirelets, or flèches. The former solution is known as a broach spire. Since towers supporting spires are usually square, square-plan spires emerge directly from the tower's walls, but octagonal spires are either built for a pyramidal transition section called a broach at the spire's base, or else freed spaces around the tower's summit for decorative elements like pinnacles. Spires are typically made of stonework or brickwork, or else of timber structures with metal cladding, ceramic tiling, roof shingles, or slates on the exterior. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape.
The Taipei 101 had the former tallest spire in the world The Burj Khalifa holds the record of the tallest spire in the world, with the height of 244 m (801 ft) The Chrysler Building was the first skyscraper with a spire in the world Spire of Salisbury Cathedral (completed 1320) (404 feet (123 metres), with tower and spire)Ī spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. For the German city formerly known as Spires in English, see Speyer.
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