colonnade

A series of columns in or outside a building, usually supporting an entablature, roof, or arches. The most famous example is the enormous 284-column colonnade that forms the Piazza of St Peter's, Rome (1655–67), architect Bernini.

In classical architecture, a colonnade denotes a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, as in the famous elliptically curving colonnades that Bernini added to the facade of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, which embrace and define the Piazza.

A colonnade of single columns is often termed a screen. When in front of a building, screening the door (Latin porta), it is called a portico, when enclosing an open court, a peristyle. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade, but the porch of columns that surrounds a peripteral Classical temple (such as the Lincoln Memorial) can be termed a colonnade. Since the largest number of columns across the front of a classical temple front is normally eight (constituting an octastyle temple), it might be argued that a colonnade must have more than eight pairs. In American sports, there are several famous examples of colonnades, including: Harvard Stadium in Boston, whose entire horseshoe-shaped stadium is topped by one, the two twin sets on either side of Soldier Field in Chicago (although these are no longer visible from inside the stadium as of the 2004 renovations), and Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois, which are located on the façade of the grandstands on either side of the field.