Pinnacle

A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations.

have stated that there were no pinnacles in the Romanesque style, but conical caps to circular buttresses, with finial terminations, are not uncommon in France at very early periods.

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc gives examples from Saint-Germer-de-Fly Abbey and the Basilica of Saint-Remi, and there is one of similar form at the west front of Rochester Cathedral.

It was a weight to counteract the thrust of the vaults, particularly where there were flying buttresses; it stopped the tendency to slip of the stone copings of the gables, and counterpoised the thrust of spires; it formed a pier to steady the elegant perforated parapets of later periods; and in France especially served to counterbalance the weight of overhanging corbel tables, huge gargoyles, etc.

In the Early English period the small buttresses frequently finished with gablets, and the more important with pinnacles supported with clustered shafts.