Light pouring through the window detail inside the Triangular Lodge
The Triangular Lodge is a folly, designed and constructed between 1593 and 1597 by Sir Thomas Tresham near Rushton, Northamptonshire, England. It is now in the care of English Heritage. The stone used for the construction was alternating bands of dark and light limestone. Tresham was a Roman Catholic and was imprisoned for a total of fifteen years in the late 16th century for refusing to become a Protestant. On his release in 1593, he designed the Lodge as a protestation of his faith. His belief in the Holy Trinity is represented everywhere in the Lodge by the number three: it has three walls 33 feet long, each with three triangular windows and surmounted by three gargoyles. The building has three floors, upon a basement, and a triangular chimney. Three Latin texts, each 33 letters long, run around the building on each facade. The quotations are: Aperiatur terra & germinet Salvatorem:[1] "Let the earth open and … bring forth salvation" (Isaiah 45:8) Quis separabit nos a charitate Christi?:[2] "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Romans 8:35) Consideravi opera tua, Domine, et expavi : "I have contemplated thy works, O Lord, and was afraid" (a paraphrase of Habakkuk 3:2[3]) The windows on each floor are of different designs, all equally ornate. The largest, those on the first floor, are in the form of a trefoil, which was the emblem of the Tresham family. The basement windows are small trefoils with a triangular pane at their centre. The windows on the ground floor are of a lozenge design, each having 12 small circular openings surrounding a central cruciform slit. Heraldic shields of various families surround these windows.
Size: 5128px × 3419px
Location: Triangular Lodge, Rushton Hall, Kettering, Northamptonshire, England, UK
Photo credit: © David Mark / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: architectural, cross, detail, folly, hall, lodge, rushton, triangle, triangular, trinity
