Notre Dame Gargoyles and Grotesques

So let’s get the pedantic portion of this post out of the way first…

What is the difference between a gargoyle and a grotesque? A gargoyle is technically a waterspout, so if it doesn’t look like it is designed to shoot water away from the building, it is more than likely a grotesque. Just one of those things I always try to be accurate on.

So… these two guys are gargoyles…

While this trio are likely all just grotesques…

I was pretty bummed to learn that Notre Dame had been damaged in a fire while I was in Madagascar and I would not be able to tour it as this was one of the sites I was actually interested in visiting. I was told that there was a tour that actually allowed one to go up and see the gargoyles and grotesques up close which I thought would be a really cool thing to do.

So I made do with photographs from the ground with the long telephoto lens.

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One thought on “Notre Dame Gargoyles and Grotesques

  1. Jennifer Mitchell

    October 18, 2021 at 6:58am

    Theses are amazing and thanks for clarifying the difference between the two forms.

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