Ramping arch

[3] Originally used to support inclined structures, like stairs or ramps,[4] in the 13th-14th centuries the rampant arch appeared as parts of flying buttresses used to counteract the thrust of Gothic ribbed vaults,[5] typical design was based on a truncated semicircular arch.

Viollet-le-Duc in 1854 described two arch types in buttresses: the earlier one where the center of the intrados segment is located on the face of the wall (intrados close to a quarter-circle), and the later, more efficient, design where the center is moved inside the wall, narrowing the segment.

[7] The ramping arches appeared in flying-buttress-like constructs outside the main walls for the first time c. 1100 AD (Durham Cathedral).

The need to buttress the walls to counteract the thrust was recognized when the Romanesque architecture barrel vaults began cracking up with time.

At first, wooden frameworks were added outside the walls, later replaced by masonry, probably the first place to do so was the Abbey of Vezelay (12th century).