Portal (architecture)

**Examples:**
– Baroque portal of a private palace in Brescia
– Wooden portal of the Church of St. Victor in Dülmen
– Romanesque portal of the Church of São Martinho de Cedofeita, with nested arches
– Gothic portal of the church in Hronský Beňadik
– Romantic portal of the St. Johns Cathedral in Tampere

**Other uses:**
– The term “portal” is also applied to the ends of a tunnel.

**See also:**
Portico

**References:**
Architecture portal
– Wikimedia Commons has media related to Portals.
– Ching, Francis (1997). A Visual Dictionary of Architecture. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. ISBN0-442-02462-2.

A portal is an opening in a wall of a building, gate or fortification, especially a grand entrance to an important structure.[page needed]

Gothic portal from Notre-Dame at Reugny, from the late 12th century, made of limestone, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Doors, metal gates, or portcullis in the opening can be used to control entry or exit. The surface surrounding the opening may be made of simple building materials or decorated with ornamentation. The elements of a portal can include the voussoir, tympanum, an ornamented mullion or trumeau between doors, and columns with carvings of saints in the westwork of a church.[citation needed]