Which architectural feature is an exterior arch that helps support walls, first used at Notre-Dame?

Which architectural feature is an exterior arch that helps support walls, first used at Notre-Dame?

• A. Dome
• B. Arch
• C. Flying buttress
• D. Buttress

Answer: (C)

Flying buttresses are exterior arches that carry the wall’s outward thrust away to an external support, letting the main walls rise higher and become thinner with large windows. This arch-and-pier system is a defining feature of Gothic architecture, and Notre-Dame in Paris is a famous early example that popularized how arches on the outside can stabilize tall, light-filled walls. A dome is a roof form, not the wall-supporting exterior arch described here. An arch is just a curved opening and doesn’t by itself explain the external thrust-transfer system. A buttress is a support, but without the characteristic arch that channels forces to a separate pier, it doesn’t capture the specific mechanism described. Therefore, the exterior arch that supports walls is the flying buttress.

Flying buttresses are exterior arches that carry the wall’s outward thrust away to an external support, letting the main walls rise higher and become thinner with large windows. This arch-and-pier system is a defining feature of Gothic architecture, and Notre-Dame in Paris is a famous early example that popularized how arches on the outside can stabilize tall, light-filled walls. A dome is a roof form, not the wall-supporting exterior arch described here. An arch is just a curved opening and doesn’t by itself explain the external thrust-transfer system. A buttress is a support, but without the characteristic arch that channels forces to a separate pier, it doesn’t capture the specific mechanism described. Therefore, the exterior arch that supports walls is the flying buttress.