A Short History of the Middle Ages Fourth Edition

Plate 6.2: Notre Dame of Paris, Exterior (begun 1163). To take the weight of the vault off the walls and
open them to glass and light, the architects of Gothic churches such as Notre Dame used flying buttresses,
which sprang from the top of the exterior wall. In this photograph they look rather like oars jutting out from
the church. You can most easily see them on the apse, to the right.