Parapet in the context of "Guard rail"

The function of battlements in war is to protect the defenders by giving them part of the parapet to hide behind, from which they can quickly expose themselves to launch projectiles, then retreat behind the parapet. A defensive building might be designed and built with battlements, or a manor house might be fortified by adding battlements, where no parapet previously existed, or cutting crenellations into its existing parapet wall. A distinctive feature of late medieval English church architecture is to crenellate the tops of church towers, and often the tops of lower walls. These are essentially decorative rather than functional, as are many examples on secular buildings.

A baluster (/ˈbæləstər/ ) is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its construction are wood, stone, and less frequently metal and ceramic. A group of balusters supporting a guard railing, coping, or ornamental detail is known as a balustrade.

The term baluster shaft is used to describe forms such as a candlestick, upright furniture support, and the stem of a brass chandelier.

In classical architecture, the term attic refers to a storey or a parapet above the cornice of a classical façade. The decoration of the topmost part of a building was particularly important in ancient Greek architecture and this came to be seen as typifying the Attica style, the earliest example known being that of the monument of Thrasyllus in Athens.

It was largely employed in Ancient Rome, where their triumphal arches utilized it for inscriptions or for bas-relief sculpture. It was used also to increase the height of enclosure walls such as those of the Forum of Nerva. By the Italian revivalists it was utilized as a complete storey, pierced with windows, as found in Andrea Palladio's work in Vicenza and in Greenwich Hospital, London. One well-known large attic surmounts the entablature of St. Peter's Basilica, which measures 12 metres (39 ft) in height.

A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesthetic concerns. The term gable wall or gable end more commonly refers to the entire wall, including the gable and the wall below it. Some types of roof do not have a gable (for example hip roofs do not). One common type of roof with gables, the 'gable roof', is named after its prominent gables.

A parapet made of a series of curves (shaped gable, see also Dutch gable) or horizontal steps (crow-stepped gable) may hide the diagonal lines of the roof.

In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a bearing weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the structure. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger" in England.

The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or parapet, has been used since Neolithic (New Stone Age) times. It is common in medieval architecture and in the Scottish baronial style as well as in the vocabulary of classical architecture, such as the modillions of a Corinthian cornice. The corbel arch and corbel vault use the technique systematically to make openings in walls and to form ceilings. These are found in the early architecture of most cultures, from Eurasia to Pre-Columbian architecture.

The Dyavolski most (Bulgarian: Дяволски мост, lit. 'Devil's Bridge'; Turkish: Şeytan Köprüsü) is an arch bridge over the Arda River in a narrow gorge in southern-central Bulgaria. It is 10 km (6.2 mi) from the Bulgarian town of Ardino in the Rhodope Mountains and is part of the ancient road connecting the lowlands of Thrace with the north Aegean Sea coast.

Dyavolski most was rebuilt between 1515 and 1518 by the Bulgarian Master Dimitar. Legend has it that the bridge was built by the Romans to link the Aegean Sea and the region of Thrace in Bulgaria. The bridge, the largest and best known of its kind in the Rhodopes, is 56 m (183.7 ft) long and has three arches, but also features holes with small semicircular arches for reading the water level. The Dyavolski most is 3.5 m (11.5 ft) wide and its main arch is 11.50 m (37.7 ft) high. A stone parapet, 12 cm (4.7 in) tall, is preserved on the sides, and breakwaters are placed opposite the stream.