Schlussstein eines Kreuzgewölbes
- Object
- Unbekannt
- Fundort: Berlin (Stadt)
- 14. Jahrhundert
MONASTERY STONES
These bricks came from the Dominican monastery that occupied this site in the Middle Ages. The masons placed the apex stone with its leaf decor at the highest point of the arch. It enabled the structure to carry its own weight and allowed the scaffolding to be dismantled. Another brick that was both decorative and functional was known as ogee moulding. The plain brick next to it contains fingerprints and a footprint – are they accidental or deliberate? Perhaps a fourteenth-century artisan made the marks to show that he had achieved his daily quota. Many stones have been preserved because the builders simply reused them after the dissolution and demolition of the monastery for extensions to the medieval palace.