Balcony

A balcony comprising a balustrade supported at either end by plinths. The balcony is supported on console brackets.

Balcony (from Italian balcone, scaffold; cf. High German balcho, beam, balk), a kind of platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade. The traditional Maltese balcony, is a wooden closed balcony projecting from a wall.

Alternatively it does not protrude out of the building, but is an open part of an upper floor, with a balustrade only at the front, and walls on the sides. Usually a door provides access to a balcony.

Sometimes balconies are adapted for ceremonial purposes, e.g. that of St. Peter's cathedral at Rome, whence the newly elected pope gives his blessing urbi et orbi. Inside churches balconies are sometimes provided for the singers, and in banqueting halls and the like for the musicians.

In theatres the balcony was formerly a stage-box, but the name is now usually confined to the part of the auditorium above the dress circle and below the gallery.

Numerous traditional Maltese balconies in Valletta, Malta

A simulated balcony is commonly termed a Juliette balcony. The term is spreading, particularly where new apartments are being built in urban locations, often with waterside aspects where external views feature strongly in their marketing. A Juliette balcony is a balustrade, usually of open metalwork, guarding an exterior door (normally serving an upper floor of a building) that may from afar look like a usable balcony but provides a negligible area beyond the main building envelope. It may be detailed to match genuine balconies in the same facade. In some high rise building in America, large open balconies are often called Terraces. Sometimes they are also called Sunporches.

Colourful balcony in Rome

Balcony

See also