Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 17, 2026

Avant-corps

An avant-corps, a French term literally meaning "fore-body", is a part of a building, such as a porch or pavilion, that juts out from the corps de logis, often taller than other parts of the building. It is common in façades in French Baroque architecture.

Last revised
Jul 17, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
176 w
Citations
2
Source
The garden façade of the Château de Maisons-Laffitte with three avant-corps, an arrangement typical of French Baroque châteaux source ↗
The Osteiner Hof in Mainz with three avant-corps source ↗

An avant-corps (Italian: avancorpo or risalto, plural risalti, German: Risalit, Polish: ryzalit), a French term literally meaning "fore-body", is a part of a building, such as a porch or pavilion, that juts out from the corps de logis, often taller than other parts of the building.12 It is common in façades in French Baroque architecture.

Particularly in German architecture, a corner Risalit is where two wings meet at right angles. Baroque three-winged constructions often incorporate a median Risalit in a main hall or a stairwell, such as in Weißenstein Palace and the Roßleben Convent School.

Sources

Sources

Much of the text of this article comes from the equivalent German-language Wikipedia article retrieved on 18 March 2006.

  1. Gérard Fontaine, Charles Garnier's Opéra (Paris, 2000), p. 88.
  2. Curl, James Stevens (2006). Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, 2nd ed., OUP, Oxford and New York, p. 52. ISBN 978-0-19-860678-9.