What Is a Cupola and Does It Actually Have a Purpose?

Cupolas are common architectural features across the United States, though you might not have given them much thought. Used for both practical and decorative purposes, cupolas top everything from civic buildings and historic houses to gazebos and barns.

What Is a Cupola?

Common to architecture in the U.S., a cupola is a tower-like, roofed structure that shoots upward from a building’s roof. This is not to be confused with another cupola in architecture, which is the ceiling or interior vault of a dome (like this cupola fresco in the Austrian National Library.) 

Cupolas tower above many world-renowned religious and civic structures, topping domes on the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. and Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy. But they were also incorporated on a more practical scale, along the roofs of residences like George Washington’s Mount Vernon home. They’re also found on sheds, garages, barns, and even landscape features, like the short octagonal cupola above the Stars Hollow gazebo in the TV show Gilmore Girls. 

These roofline additions were a way to admit light and air into the structure below. Cupolas were integrated into the roof construction, meaning someone in the building could look up and into the cupola. Although typically enclosed, helping keep creatures, debris, and weather elements out of the structure, cupolas often have openings, such as louvers or operable windows, for air to circulate. At Mount Vernon, the cupola not only adds to the home’s symmetry as a focal point of the roofline, but its position at the center of the house allows the cupola to light the staircase and create a draft for ventilation throughout the home. Because of these features, cupolas promote air circulation and prevent moisture buildup, which is why you’ll see them on many barns, stables, and garages. 

A Brief History of Cupolas

According to Britannica, cupolas are traced as far back as the 8th century in Islamic, Middle Eastern, and Indian architecture. In the United States, cupolas have particularly strong ties to 18th and 19th-century architecture. In A Field Guide to American Houses, Virginia Savage McAlester writes that rooftop cupolas are common to Federal, Italianate, Octagon, Second Empire, and Greek Revival buildings. You’ll find them on many Victorian- and Georgian-era structures. 

Cupolas were especially popular as part of the Picturesque Movement, which had a big impact on residential architecture when these styles were developing. It was a period of design focused on developing a home’s architecture to better appreciate its surrounding landscape. Many cupolas were simply added to the roofline. But a cupola that is accessible so that a person can look out of it—and possibly even fit entirely inside of it—is called a belvedere. Styles that developed with strong influence from the Picturesque Movement, like Italianate houses, often incorporated belvederes as a lookout. For example, the belvedere on the Houmas House in Darrow, Louisiana, offered a high vantage point to view and appreciate surrounding lands.

Many decades later, cupolas were added to the ranch-style homes popular in the U.S. from the 1930s through the 1970s. According to McAlester, traditional detailings were common additions to these more modern homes, including the use of decorative, rather than functional, cupolas. 

Style and Design Elements of Cupolas 

Historically, cupolas were integrated into the roof to provide the benefits of ventilation and natural light. Today, they can be simple ornamental additions. 

Cupolas are often square, especially on Italianate houses, but they can also be rounded, octagonal, or hexagonal. Cupolas may be custom-designed to match a structure’s architecture and style. There are also prefabricated styles, generally made of wood, vinyl, and metal, in multiple sizes and styles that can be purchased from home and garden stores and e-retailers.

Although cupolas are not as common today, they still serve a useful decorative function. Aesthetically, cupolas change the profile of a building by creating a more dynamic roofline. For example, cupolas add variety to low-pitch roofs and single-story homes. And don’t forget to consider garages, sheds, barns, and landscape elements like gazebos or porch roofs when identifying potential locations for a cupola.

When it comes to the design, the two most critical parts of the cupola are the cap, or roof, and the body or main enclosure. The bottom portion that connects the cupola to the house is generally known as the base.

Cupolas are also an opportunity to incorporate decorative elements into exterior architecture. For example, consider varying the color, shape, or pitch of a cupola cap from the rest of the structure’s roof. The cupola roof can also be bell-shaped, flat, tall and pointed, or match the style of the home, like a hip roof. Copper is a popular traditional choice for cupola roof accents. 

You can also vary the body elements, including siding type, window shape and pane style, or louvers. Cupolas can even add a touch of whimsy to whatever structure they top; they are often the perfect perch for a weather vane, flag, or finial that shows off your personality or the home’s architectural style. In addition to toppers, lanterns or light fixtures inside the cupola can add cozy ambience at night.