Pergola
Encyclopedia
A pergola, arbor or arbour is a garden feature
forming a shaded walkway, passageway or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open lattice
, often upon which woody
vine
s are trained. As a type of gazebo
, it may also be an extension of a building, or serve as protection for an open terrace
or a link between pavilion
s.
The origin of the word is the Late Latin
pergula, referring to a projecting eave. The English
term was borrowed from Italian
. It was mentioned in an Italian context in 1645, by John Evelyn
at the cloister
of Trinità dei Monti
in Rome
and used by him in an English context in 1654, when, in the company of the fifth Earl of Pembroke
, Evelyn watched the coursing of hares
from a "pergola" built on the downs
near Salisbury
for that purpose.
Pergolas may link pavilion
s or extend from a building's door to an open garden feature such as an isolated terrace or pool. Freestanding pergolas, those not attached to a home or other structure, provide a sitting area that allows for breeze and light sun, but offers protection from the harsh glare of direct sunlight. Pergolas also give climbing plants a structure on which to grow.
Pergolas are more permanent architectural features than the green tunnels of late medieval
and early Renaissance
gardens, which were often formed of springy withies
—easily replaced shoot
s of willow
or hazel
—bound together at the heads to form a series of arch
es, then loosely woven with long slats, on which climbers were grown, to make a passage that was both cool and shaded and moderately dry in a shower. At the Medici villa
, La Petraia
, inner and outer curving segments of such green walks, the forerunners of pergolas, give structure to the pattern, which can be viewed from the long terrace above it, and provide rare privacy in a teeming household, offering to those walking within it leafy glimpses into an orderly paradise
, a formally-planted enclosed orchard that consciously recalled the Garden of Eden
before Adam's Fall.
The clearly artificial nature of the pergola made it fall from favor in the naturalistic gardening styles of the 18th and 19th centuries, but handsome pergolas on brick and stone pillars with powerful cross-beams were a feature of the gardens designed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Sir Edwin Lutyens
and Gertrude Jekyll
and epitomize their trademark of firm structure luxuriantly planted. A particularly extensive pergola features at the gardens of The Hill, Hampstead
(London), designed by Thomas Mawson for his client W. H. Lever.
Modern pergola designs of wood rather than brick or stone pillars are more affordable and are increasing in popularity. Generally, pergolas are either made from a weather-resistant wood, such as Western Redcedar (Thuja plicata
) or, formerly, of Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), or are painted or stained
.
Garden feature
Garden features are physical elements, both natural and manmade, used in garden design.*Avenue*Cascade*Belvedere*Deck*Duck Island, Duck house, or Duck Canopy*Duck pond*Feengrotten*Folly*Fountain*Gazebo*Grotto*Hedge*Herbaceous border*Lawn...
forming a shaded walkway, passageway or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open lattice
Latticework
Latticework is a framework consisting of a criss-crossed pattern of strips of building material, typically wood or metal. The design is created by crossing the strips to form a network...
, often upon which woody
Woody plant
A woody plant is a plant that uses wood as its structural tissue. These are typically perennial plants whose stems and larger roots are reinforced with wood produced adjacent to the vascular tissues. The main stem, larger branches, and roots of these plants are usually covered by a layer of...
vine
Vine
A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine , but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners...
s are trained. As a type of gazebo
Gazebo
A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal, that may be built, in parks, gardens, and spacious public areas. Gazebos are freestanding or attached to a garden wall, roofed, and open on all sides; they provide shade, shelter, ornamental features in a landscape, and a place to rest...
, it may also be an extension of a building, or serve as protection for an open terrace
Terrace (building)
A terrace is an outdoor, occupiable extension of a building above ground level. Although its physical characteristics may vary to a great degree, a terrace will generally be larger than a balcony and will have an "open-top" facing the sky...
or a link between pavilion
Pavilion (structure)
In architecture a pavilion has two main meanings.-Free-standing structure:Pavilion may refer to a free-standing structure sited a short distance from a main residence, whose architecture makes it an object of pleasure. Large or small, there is usually a connection with relaxation and pleasure in...
s.
The origin of the word is the Late Latin
Late Latin
Late Latin is the scholarly name for the written Latin of Late Antiquity. The English dictionary definition of Late Latin dates this period from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD extending in Spain to the 7th. This somewhat ambiguously defined period fits between Classical Latin and Medieval Latin...
pergula, referring to a projecting eave. The English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
term was borrowed from Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
. It was mentioned in an Italian context in 1645, by John Evelyn
John Evelyn
John Evelyn was an English writer, gardener and diarist.Evelyn's diaries or Memoirs are largely contemporaneous with those of the other noted diarist of the time, Samuel Pepys, and cast considerable light on the art, culture and politics of the time John Evelyn (31 October 1620 – 27 February...
at the cloister
Cloister
A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries, with open arcades on the inner side, running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth...
of Trinità dei Monti
Trinità dei Monti
The church of the Santissima Trinità dei Monti is a late Renaissance titular church in Rome, central Italy. It is best known for its commanding position above the Spanish Steps which lead down to the Piazza di Spagna...
in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and used by him in an English context in 1654, when, in the company of the fifth Earl of Pembroke
Philip Herbert, 5th Earl of Pembroke
Philip Herbert, 5th Earl of Pembroke, 2nd Earl of Montgomery , succeeded to the titles in 1649 on the death of his father, also called Philip Herbert....
, Evelyn watched the coursing of hares
Hare coursing
Hare coursing is the pursuit of hares with greyhounds and other sighthounds, which chase the hare by sight and not by scent. It is a competitive sport, in which dogs are tested on their ability to run, overtake and turn a hare, rather than a form of hunting aiming at the capture of game. It has a...
from a "pergola" built on the downs
Downland
A downland is an area of open chalk hills. This term is especially used to describe the chalk countryside in southern England. Areas of downland are often referred to as Downs....
near Salisbury
Salisbury
Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...
for that purpose.
Pergolas may link pavilion
Pavilion (structure)
In architecture a pavilion has two main meanings.-Free-standing structure:Pavilion may refer to a free-standing structure sited a short distance from a main residence, whose architecture makes it an object of pleasure. Large or small, there is usually a connection with relaxation and pleasure in...
s or extend from a building's door to an open garden feature such as an isolated terrace or pool. Freestanding pergolas, those not attached to a home or other structure, provide a sitting area that allows for breeze and light sun, but offers protection from the harsh glare of direct sunlight. Pergolas also give climbing plants a structure on which to grow.
Pergolas are more permanent architectural features than the green tunnels of late medieval
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....
and early Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
gardens, which were often formed of springy withies
Withy
Withy or withe is a strong flexible willow stem that is typically used in thatching and for gardening. An advantage of using this type of material is said to be a greater resistance to woodworm....
—easily replaced shoot
Shoot
Shoots are new plant growth, they can include stems, flowering stems with flower buds, and leaves. The new growth from seed germination that grows upward is a shoot where leaves will develop...
s of willow
Willow
Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...
or hazel
Hazel
The hazels are a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate northern hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae, though some botanists split the hazels into a separate family Corylaceae.They have simple, rounded leaves with double-serrate margins...
—bound together at the heads to form a series of arch
Arch
An arch is a structure that spans a space and supports a load. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-Technical aspects:The...
es, then loosely woven with long slats, on which climbers were grown, to make a passage that was both cool and shaded and moderately dry in a shower. At the Medici villa
Medici villas
The Medici villas are a series of rural building complexes near Florence which were owned by members of the Medici family between the 15th century and the 17th century. The villas served several functions: they were the country palaces of the Medici, scattered over the territory that they ruled,...
, La Petraia
Villa La Petraia
The Villa La Petraia is one of the Medici villas in Castello, near Florence, Tuscany, central Italy.It has a distinctive 19th century Belvedere on the upper east terrace on axis with the view of Florence- External links :...
, inner and outer curving segments of such green walks, the forerunners of pergolas, give structure to the pattern, which can be viewed from the long terrace above it, and provide rare privacy in a teeming household, offering to those walking within it leafy glimpses into an orderly paradise
Paradise
Paradise is a place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness. Paradise is a place of contentment, but it is not necessarily a land of luxury and...
, a formally-planted enclosed orchard that consciously recalled the Garden of Eden
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
before Adam's Fall.
The clearly artificial nature of the pergola made it fall from favor in the naturalistic gardening styles of the 18th and 19th centuries, but handsome pergolas on brick and stone pillars with powerful cross-beams were a feature of the gardens designed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Sir Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
and Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll was an influential British garden designer, writer, and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the USA and contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines.-Early life:...
and epitomize their trademark of firm structure luxuriantly planted. A particularly extensive pergola features at the gardens of The Hill, Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
(London), designed by Thomas Mawson for his client W. H. Lever.
Modern pergola designs of wood rather than brick or stone pillars are more affordable and are increasing in popularity. Generally, pergolas are either made from a weather-resistant wood, such as Western Redcedar (Thuja plicata
Thuja plicata
Thuja plicata, commonly called Western or pacific red cedar, giant or western arborvitae, giant cedar, or shinglewood, is a species of Thuja, an evergreen coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae native to western North America...
) or, formerly, of Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), or are painted or stained
Wood stain
A wood stain consists of a colorant suspended or dissolved in a 'vehicle' or solvent. The suspension agent can be water, alcohol, petroleum distillate, or the actual finishing agent...
.
See also
- Brise soleilBrise soleilBrise soleil, sometimes brise-soleil , from French, "sun breaker"), in architecture refers to a variety of permanent sun-shading techniques, ranging from the simple patterned concrete walls popularized by Le Corbusier to the elaborate wing-like mechanism devised by Santiago Calatrava for the...
- Trellis (architecture)
- Vine training systemsVine training systemsThe use of vine training systems in viticulture is aimed primarily to assist in canopy management with finding the balance in enough foliage to facilitate photosynthesis without excessive shading that could impede grape ripening or promote grape diseases...
- LatticeworkLatticeworkLatticework is a framework consisting of a criss-crossed pattern of strips of building material, typically wood or metal. The design is created by crossing the strips to form a network...
- PatioPatioA patio is an outdoor space generally used for dining or recreation that adjoins a residence and is typically paved. It may refer to a roofless inner courtyard of the sort found in Spanish-style dwellings or a paved area between a residence and a garden....