originally, a hood projecting from the wall over a grate, built to catch the smoke and direct it up to the chimney flue. It came to mean any decorative development of the same type or for the same purpose—e.g., a mantel, or mantelpiece.

Like the modern chimney itself, the chimneypiece was essentially a northern medieval development. Its early hood form is seen at the 12th-century Rochester Castle, England. Later, the spaces under the ends of the hood were made solid, so that the fireplace became a rectangular opening, and in some cases the fireplace was recessed into the wall. Late medieval fireplaces were of great size and richness—as, for example, the triple fireplace in the great hall of the 13th-century Palais des Comtes at Poitiers, France.

During the Renaissance, fireplace openings were decorated with columns, pilasters, and entablatures, and occasionally the front of the wall or hood above the overmantel was embellished. Northern Italian palaces have examples of great delicacy. In France the fireplaces at the châteaus of Blois, Chambord, and Fontainebleau are known for their artistry. The chimneypieces of the Baroque and Rococo periods were usually smaller, with rich decoration, and were commonly characterized by elaborate overmantel treatments. Chimneypieces were less numerous in Germany because of the use of porcelain stoves there.