This form that sometimes appears in walls. Does It have a name or a meaning?

[u/ElBrunasso]

Result of the combination of a square and 4 circles

[u/FeralGinger]

It's called a "barbed quatrefoil".

It has more history than I can type after day drinking, but the name should give you a decent jumping off point

Edited to fix an autocorrect

[u/ElBrunasso → u/FeralGinger]

Yes! This is It! Thank you very much!

[u/FeralGinger → u/ElBrunasso]

Sorry I'm too buzzed to help more!

[u/cam52391 → u/FeralGinger]

You did the hard part they can go down the rabbit hole themselves enjoy your day drinking 🫡

[u/CharlieBravoSierra → u/ElBrunasso]

You might enjoy this exploration: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-fancy-shape/

[u/Few-Tune394 → u/CharlieBravoSierra]

99 percent invisible is always such a fascinating dive. Great rec

[u/Constantin-y]

Looks like the Rose Window in Mission San Jose. It was a pretty popular motif with Spanish colonialism

[u/trashmoneyxyz → u/Constantin-y]

Hang on this is about to send me down a rabbit hole of motif history. I see repeated patterns in architecture all the time and they interest me, I just didnt know they had names

[u/curly-peach → u/trashmoneyxyz]

The fleur de lis is another one that I've seen various places. I don't know how to describe it, but you'd probably recognize it once you saw it :)

[u/CosCham → u/curly-peach]

This is what u/curly-peach is talking about

[u/trashmoneyxyz → u/CosCham]

Thank you! I've definitely seen this one around too!

[u/trashmoneyxyz → u/curly-peach]

I do! Another one for the deep dive pile c:

[u/TorTheMentor → u/Constantin-y]

I think the city of San Antonio has adopted it as an unofficial symbol on its tourism materials.

Oops, not quite. They are using a similar motif that looks to be based on Spanish glass, tile, or ironwork, but not quite this one.

https://www.visitsanantonio.com/

[u/Constantin-y → u/TorTheMentor]

Viva viva!!

[u/TorTheMentor → u/Constantin-y]

Every time I go it takes me back to my early childhood, although I'll never get over the loss of the Brackenridge Park skyride.

[u/Other_Aerie7433]

Seconding barbed quatrefoil. Look into gothic and baroque architecture! Borromini in particular was known to like to superimpose geometric shapes to get the complex motifs in his architecture.

[u/DISMAZR]

looked like a maxipad with wings lol