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This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (May 2010) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation like Deepl or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary (using German): Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Exact name of German article]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|de|Architrav}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Architrave of the left-side portal in the facade of Sant'Ambrogio basilica in Milan, Italy

Architrave in the Basilica di San Salvatore, Spoleto, Italy.

An architrave (/ˈɑːrkɪtreɪv/; from Italian: architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον epistylon "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of the columns. It is an architectural element in Classical architecture.

The term can also be applied to all sides, including the vertical members, of a frame with mouldings around a door or window. The word architrave is also used to refer more generally to a style of mouldings (or other elements) framing the top of a door, window or other rectangular opening, where the horizontal "head" casing extends across the tops of the vertical side casings where the elements join (creating a butt joint, as opposed to a miter joint).^[1]

Classical architecture

In an entablature in classical architecture, it is the lowest part, below the frieze and cornice. The word is derived from the Greek and Latin words arche and trabs combined together to mean "main beam". The architrave is different in the different orders. In the Tuscan, it only consists of a plain face, crowned with a fillet, and is half a module in height. In the Doric and composite, it has two faces, or fasciae; and three in the Ionic and Corinthian, in which it is 10/12 of a module high, though but half a module in the rest.^[2]

Metaphorical use

The term "architrave" has also been used in academic writing to mean the fundamental part of something (a speech, a thought or a reasoning), or the basis upon which an idea, reasoning, thought or philosophy is built.

Examples:
1) "...the Mature Hegel- the Hegel of the Philosophy of Right- who becomes the architrave on which he (Honneth, ed.) constructs his social philosophy."

Ref.: Page: XIV, The Ethics of Democracy: A Contemporary Reading of Hegel's Philosophy of Right (Lucio Cortella, SUNY Press, 2015)LINK

2) "to become the architrave of his theoretic construction"

Ref.: Pag. 281, Economics and institutions Contributions from the History of Economic thought (Pier Francesco Asso, Luca Fiorito, Italian Association for History and Economic Thought, Vol. IV, Franco Angeli Press 2007)LINK

Indian architecture (Śilpaśāstra)

In śilpaśāstra, the ancient Indian science of sculpture, the architrave is commonly referred to by its Sanskrit name uttara.^[3] It is placed above the bracket (potika) of a pillar (stambha), which gives it extra support.

Dravidian architecture recognizes several distinct types of Architraves^[4]:

See also

• 
  Archivolt – expanded and elaborated architrave element
  


• 
  Dolmen – Neolithic predecessor, megalithic tombs with structural stone lintels
  


• Lintel


• 
  Post and lintel – architectural system with architraves-lintels
  

Footnotes

External links

• 
  Media related to Architraves at Wikimedia Commons