Column

In architecture, a cylindrical or slightly tapering support or pillar for some part of a building, usually made of stone or wood. There were classic orders of columns which had specific shapes for the base shaft and capital which supported the entablature. In Gothic and Norman architecture the column was the pillar or pier supporting an arch. A column may also stay alone as Trajan's Column in Rome. A circuit of columns enclosing an open space in the interior of a building was called a peristyle.

A Latin architectural term denoting a cylindrical pillar, usually of wood or stone. In classical architecture a column is visually composed of three parts, the base (not always present), shaft and capital. The shaft, when of stone, would typically be made up of several superimposed drums, so jointed and pinned together as to appear completely flush. The column was normally tapered upwards (though not always uniformly, as bulging ‘cigar’-shapes, entasis, are also found) and the surface was finished with vertical fluting.