Vertical structural element of a building, going outward perpendicularly from the wall of a high building in the form of a pillar. The buttress is to reinforce the wall and move the weight of the building vault to the ground. Viewed from the side, it extends stepped or tilted. Enables the use of large, tall windows that occupy a large area of the walls, thereby losing their support function. Also used in fortifications for strengthening the walls. A particularly developed form of buttress was adopted in the romanesque and gothic church architecture. Romanesque buttresses were prominent, massive, going quite far from the supported walls. In gothic style took form of very characteristic for this period, of stepped, openwork supports still further away from the supporting walls.
