07/04/2026
✨ It’s a grotesque (and not a gargoyle)!
Grotesques and gargoyles are another subject which I have a million photos of on my phone.
Grotesques are stone carvings placed high on cathedral walls, where they have watched for centuries. It’s rare to see them up close.
When I visited York last year, I found this one in the stonemason’s yard beside York Minster.
📷 photo was taken by me in York, 21 March 2025.
The grotesque I photographed is newly carved, created to replace one long lost to centuries of wind and rain. Even with careful study, much of the original design had disappeared, leaving the modern stonemason to interpret what once was.
It is carved from limestone, by hand, using traditional tools.
Grotesques appear alongside gargoyles, high on the building, but unlike gargoyles they serve no practical purpose. They are decorative, often humorous, and full of symbolism. Many take hybrid forms: part human, part animal, part imagination. They are shaped as much by folklore as by faith.
This particular carving is intended to symbolise the tension between good and evil. The frog emerging from the mouth draws on medieval symbolism, where the frog represents demons. Other elements, like the fish, suggest ideas of faith and redemption.
❓Did you know? A grotesque is purely decorative, while a gargoyle serves as a rain spout!
