Agazebo is apavilion structure, sometimesoctagonal orturret-shaped, often built in apark,garden, or spaciouspublic area.[1] Some are used on occasions asbandstands.
InBritish English, the word is also used for a tent-like canopy with open sides to provide shelter from sun and rain at outdoor events.[2]
The etymology given byOxford Dictionaries is "Mid 18th century: perhaps humorously from gaze, in imitation of Latin future tenses ending in -ebo: compare withlavabo."[3] L. L. Bacon put forward a derivation fromCasbah, aMuslim quarter around the citadel inAlgiers.[4] W. Sayers proposedHispano-Arabicqushaybah, in a poem byCordoban poetIbn Quzman (d. 1160).[5]The wordgazebo appears in a mid-18th century English book by the architects John andWilliam Halfpenny:Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste. There Plate 55, "Elevation of a Chinese Gazebo", shows "a Chinese Tower or Gazebo, situated on a Rock, and raised to a considerable Height, and a Gallery round it to render the Prospect more complete."[6]
George Washington had a small eight-sided garden structure atMount Vernon.Thomas Jefferson wrote about gazebos, then called summerhouses or pavilions.[7]
Gazebos are freestanding or attached to a garden wall, roofed, and are often open on all sides. They provideshade, shelter from rain and a place to rest, while acting as anornamental feature.[citation needed] Some gazebos in public parks are large enough to serve as abandstand.
Gazebos overlap with pavilions,kiosks,[8]belvederes,follies,gloriettes,pergolas, androtundas.
Such structures first appeared inEgyptian gardens approximately 5,000 years ago and appear in the literature of China,Persia and other classical civilizations.[citation needed]
Examples in England are the garden houses atMontacute House inSomerset. The gazebo atElton on the Hill inNottinghamshire, thought to date from the late 18th or early 19th century, is a square, crenelated, brick and stone tower with an arched opening. It acted as a focus for an extensive system of red-brick walled gardens, which has survived with some more modern additions.[9]
In today's England and North America, gazebos are typically built of wood and covered with standard roofing materials, such asshingles. Gazebos can be tent-style structures of poles covered by tensioned fabric. Gazebos may have screens to aid in the exclusion of flying insects.
Temporary gazebos are often set up in the campsites ofmusic festivals in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, usually accompanyingtents around them.
A structure resembling a gazebo, found in villages in theMaldives, is known as aholhuashi.[citation needed]
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