Gazebo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the article relating to the Italian singer Gazebo, see Paul Mazzolini.
Image:Largegazebo.jpg Image:Singapore botanic gardens gazebo.jpg A gazebo is a pavilion structure commonly found in parks, gardens, and spacious public areas. Gazebos are freestanding, roofed, and open on all sides; they provide shade, basic shelter, ornamental features in a landscape, and a place to rest. In their original use—the word appears in English in 1752— they were sited to take advantage of a view, so much so that among the false etymologies for gazebo are Que c'est beau (French: "How beautiful") and the Macaronic Latin gazebo ("I shall gaze").
Earlier examples of garden pavilions that have survived were more solidly built, though open to views. Pavilions that a later generation might have termed gazebos are the garden houses at Montacute House.
Some gazebos in public parks are large enough to serve as bandstands.
The film The Sound of Music features a memorable gazebo scene, but this gazebo is not open on all sides.
A very well-known Role-Playing Game anecdote, known as the "Tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo", features a player who is dumbfounded by the Game Master's description of a nearby gazebo as he doesn't know what a gazebo is. Convinced that he has encountered some sort of monster, he queries the bewildered game master for its specifics in meticulous detail then proceeds to attempt wounding it with an arrow (and, obviously, fail). By the end of the encounter the player, lacking the means to harm a gazebo, opts to flee in desperation; the frustrated Game Master responds that "It's too late. You've awakened the Gazebo; It catches you and eats you."[1]
