In the present research, emblematic buildings built in Europe as well as their staircases are studied and reported. The research covers buildings built from antiquity up to modern era. Their characteristics, their influence and their evolutionary course through time are analyzed. The historical retrospect focuses on the findings that prove that the staircase always listened to the tendency and the requirements of each season, while at the same time, it was formed and evolved within it harmoniously.

Reaching the 5th year of school of architecture, the staircase is an element that we find in all architectural compositions and solves complex and difficult problems, both functionally and sensually. When solving staircases, all attention was given in the technical way of solving, treating this element as a tool that simply connects the building levels. A staircase however is part of an architectural ensemble, a proposal of function and aesthetics, to which the corresponding diligence was almost never given. This research topic was selected following an apologetic process, as we realized that the staircase was treated without deepening sufficiently in reading its Architectural history as well as its solution in the respective architectural compositions.

Treads, railings and other individual sections of the staircase were elements that were conspired within us for a long time and as a result it made our research more experiential. Walking in Volos and Larisa, the cities where we grew up, we began to observe the external stairwells of buildings.

Where does a staircase start? Where does it end? What material is it made of? How is its form and geometry? These were questions in which the eye and the mind were always looking to answer. We started photo capturing the staircases that stimulated our interest, each for a different reason. The last part of the research gathers our personal experiences, walks and quests that answer many questions that books fail to answer