Gazebo
In both western and oriental countries, gazebos have been fixtures in gardens for many centuries. In China and Japan, people call it a pavilion. Their popularity and presence have become more widespread with every generation, and they have emerged as the most prevalent outdoor garden structures in the world. Originally called summerhouses, screen houses, kiosks, pavilions, pergolas, arbors, grottos, or pagodas, the existence of gazebos has been traced to the earliest gardens. Gazebos
actually started out as towers or lanterns on the roofs of houses, and were built specifically to provide an advantageous view of the surrounding areas. It wasn’t until years and years later that the structures were built on the ground as summerhouses.
Gazebos were very common in old Egyptian gardens centuries ago. As you might depict that, members of royal family were the first to set up gazebos in their gardens. In fact, they thought of their gardens as paradises on the earth, and believed they could take them to their afterlife. When one wished to do so, it was customary to have the plans for their dwellings and a complete layout of the garden depicted in a mural in one’s tomb. Such murals, gazebos painted on it, have been found in different tombs that
could be dated back to 1400 B.C. The structures were also popular in ancient Rome and Pompeii. As the population of Rome increased, the affluent and aristocratic began building summerhouses along the Mediterranean, complete with gazebos. Also widespread in the East, gazebos in tenth-century Persian gardens were anything from colorful tents with mats on the floors, to ornate, two-story structures with cupolas, marble columns, and golden seats. Some were even built across pools or streams so that the cold water
running beneath their marble floors would help to cool the gazebos in the hot summer. Others were actually used as tombs for their owners. China’s gazebos were also quite elaborate, while those in Japan, often called teahouses, were used in conjunction with the revered tea ceremonies, and were the places to rest, and help people to carry out spiritual events.
Some people still think their gazebos to be the ultimate places to relax in quiet meditation while they listen to birds sing in the trees, enjoy a cooling breeze in the autumn evening, or take in the beauty and the sweet scents of their newly cut gardens grasses. Others visualize them as outdoor dining area, perfect for hosting brunches and luncheons. It has become very trendy to put a pretty, lace cloth on a table, with a centerpiece of freshly picked flowers, an attractive tea set, elegant place settings,
finger sandwiches and petit fours, and host a high tea to your friends in a gazebo. Further from the main house, gazebos may be enclosed with solid wood walls, or vinyl siding, and a sealed wooden floor, and turned into a cottage, summerhouse, guesthouse, entertainment pavilion, pool house, cabana, or anything else you wish to make it. You can even give it a deck all its own.
Today, gazebos are all around in homes and gardens all across the country. Unique to the designer’s wisdom, they can be round, square, octagonal, or rectangular, small or large, ornate or plain, elegant or rustic, and anything else that one can dream of. It can come in stone, wood, wrought iron, vinyl and bamboos. It can be single or double decks.
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