![]() ![]() Perhaps the most famous of these is the Loretto Chapel staircase in Santa Fe, New Mexico. But there are also a few examples of wood spiral staircases, which seem to defy gravity, as there is no central column or outer wall for support. All the weight of the staircase was supported by that central column, which was often of wood as well.īut what about cases where there was no central column? There are numerous examples of spiral staircases which use the outer wall for support, without any central column. ![]() While most still depended on a central column for support, most no longer had the outer wall for additional support. These spiral staircases were usually made of wood and are perhaps some of the most amazing examples of woodworking in history. Instead of being part of the defenses of a castle, spiral staircases were used when there wasn’t room to shoehorn a regular staircase, even a switchback staircase into a building. In these cases, it was the outer wall which actually supported the stairs.Īs time went on and the castle was no longer a viable tool of war, spiral staircases didn’t disappear. But in larger towers, there was no center column, with the stairs merely resting on each other. In the case of narrow towers, the center end of the stairs were designed to stack, forming a column. Those stairs were inset into the walls, cantilevered towards the center of the tower. Since castles were made of stone, the spiral staircases in those towers were as well. Defenders used those staircases to mount the wall and then if the fighting moved inside the castle, there would be fighting on the stairs. Most of those towers weren’t large enough in diameter to house a princess (she was in the castle keep), but were nothing more than a spiral staircase, leading to a fighting platform at the top. Round towers were commonly used as defensive strongholds in castle walls. It is there that we see the spiral staircase first come into its own. Those castles are a machine, exquisitely designed as a defensive tool. The study of castles, especially medieval castles, is fascinating. This advantage was amplified by building all spiral staircases ascending clockwise, forcing attackers to expose more of their bodies as they fought their way up the stairs, while having difficulty wielding their own swords, which would end up hitting the tower wall. Originally, they were a defensive measure, used to force attackers to use a very narrow front, giving the defenders an advantage. The spiral staircase has been in use in architecture for roughly 1,900 years, although researchers seem to think that the concept goes back over 3,000 years.
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