PILASTER (Fr. pilastre, med.

See also:

• LAT

Lat. pilastrum, from pila, a

See also:

• PILLAR (0. Fr. piler, Mod. pilier, Late Lat. pilare, from pila, column)

pillar)  , in architecture, an engaged pier projecting slightly from the wall, and employed to divide up and decorate a wall surface or to serve as respond to a column . One of the earliest examples (c . 100 B.c.) exists in the propylaea at Priene in Asia Minor, where it tapers towards the top . Pilasters have bases and capitals and are frequently fluted like columns . The Romans would seem to have preferred semi-detached columns, but for their amphitheatres sometimes pilasters are employed, as in the upper story of the Colosseum . In the revival of Classic architecture, and especially in Italy, architects seem to have considered that no building was complete without a network of pilasters on every storey, and France and England followed their example; and not only externally but inside the great cathedrals and churches the pilaster is adopted as the simplest and best way of dividing the bays .