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February 8, 2003
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Le Mans, France
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1988
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James L. Stanfield
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"Flying buttresses were constructed of vertical masonry piers with arches curving out from them like fingers. The fingers pressed against remnant wall sections between the great windows. The function of buttresses was to absorb thrust from the main body of the church, a serious threat to the structure during high winds. ...
With time, systems tended to become less massive and more fanciful. At the Cathedral of Saint-Julien in Le Mans, buttresses came in clusters of three, interlocked in a Y shape when seen from above."
—From "The Gothic Revolution," July 1989, National Geographic magazine
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