A vault is a self supporting arched structure, usually of stone or brick, built to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. Building a vault works like building an arch: voussoirs are set on temporary centering, a timber framework shaped to the curve, until the topmost voussoir, the keystone, locks the ring and the vault becomes self supporting on its own. The earliest true, radially jointed vaults were built by the Egyptians and Assyrians and reached the West through the Etruscans; the Romans developed vault construction further, raising barrel, groin and dome vaults such as those that survive at the Pantheon and the Basilica of Maxentius. A separate, older tradition of corbelled or false vaulting, built from horizontally stacked stone courses rather than radiating voussoirs, appears in Mycenaean beehive tombs from the fourteenth century BC and in Neolithic buildings at Khirokitia on Cyprus dated to about 6000 BC.
Facts
Element Kind First Used EraThe Mycenaeans built conical-vaulted tholos tombs, also called beehive tombs, circa 1800 to 1050 BC, among the earliest evidence of curved brick construction without stone arches; the form was later systematized by Rome and refined through the Middle Ages. 1 Era
Era (category) Vault
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Associated With
A vault is structurally an arch extended along a line, so the two elements are named together in the atlas's own description of each.
Source Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of ArchitectureBanister Fletcher, edited by Dan Cruickshank (20th edition)
Source Wikipedia
Additional Source Barrel Vault (Wikipedia)
A dome is a vault rotated around a central vertical axis, closing the shell in every direction at once.
Source Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of ArchitectureBanister Fletcher, edited by Dan Cruickshank (20th edition)
Seen In
Rib vaults over the nave and choir.
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Vault (architecture) (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationWikipedia: Vault (architecture), lead section
The Mycenaeans (ca. 1800-1050 BC) built tholos tombs, also called beehive tombs, which were underground structures with conical vaults.
Lead section, vault construction and centering
Until the topmost voussoir, the keystone, is positioned, the vault is not self-supporting.
View the Source 2. Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.Britannica: Vault, lead paragraph
vault, in building construction, a structural member consisting of an arrangement of arches, usually forming a ceiling or roof.
- Seen In: Notre-Dame de Paris
View the Source Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of Architecture
Banister Fletcher, edited by Dan Cruickshank (20th edition), Architectural Press, 1996- General history, vaulted construction
- Associated With: Arch, General history, structural elements chapter, on the vault as an extruded arch
- Associated With: Dome, General history, structural elements chapter, on the dome as a rotated vault
Barrel Vault (Wikipedia)
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a barrel vault, a groin vault, and a rib vault?
Barrel is a single extruded arch; groin crosses two barrel vaults at right angles; rib adds load-bearing diagonal ribs over a thinner infill web.
A barrel vault is the simplest form, a single arch profile extruded along a straight axis, the form Roman engineers used extensively for aqueducts and bath houses. A groin vault forms where two barrel vaults cross at right angles, concentrating structural loads onto four corner piers instead of continuous side walls, which frees the wall plane for openings. A rib vault refines the groin vault further: diagonal arched ribs carry the structural load and support a thinner infill web between them, concentrating weight at discrete points rather than along the vault edges. Each later form grew out of the one before it, developed to open up more wall space for windows and light.
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