Stilted - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

STILTED, a term in architecture, given to anything raised above its usual level; it is usually applied to the arch, which is said to be stilted when its centre is raised above the capital or impost. In Byzantine architecture this was frequently done in order to give more importance to the twin arches of the windows, and less to the shaft which divided them. In Romanesque and Gothic work the stilted arch was often employed in the semicircular apses, where in consequence of the closer juxtaposition of the columns round the apse the arches were much narrower than those of the choir; in order, however, that the apex of all the arches should be of the same height, the apse arches were stilted.