They are statues in the form of monstrous birds. “They can be seen on top of Gothic buildings, in general churches and cathedrals, and were carved in such a way as to disguise the pipes through which rainwater drained from the roofs”, says architect Dárcio Ottoni, from USP. His grotesque and demonic figures follow the medieval Gothic style, which used and abused sculptures in buildings in a theatrical way, as if telling stories. And gargoyles, to some extent, inspire human nightmares – face to face, it’s almost impossible not to imagine them in sudden movement, abandoning the lookout to terrorize in the dark of night. This strangeness helped people to come to believe that gargoyles also served to ward off evil spirits, an idea that became popular and is recited by tour guides across Europe.
But you don’t have to go there to see some of the most famous gargoyles. Old horror films and drawings, as well as practically all those that show the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, usually highlight these creatures. It is common, however, for gargoyles to be confused with chimeras, equally frightening, but which, in terms of birds, have nothing: the head is that of a lion, the body is that of a goat and the hindquarters is that of a dragon.