Abstract: A fireproof building element comprises a panel of nonflammable nonmetallic material, specifically glass, surrounded by an at least partly metallic framework with legs of rectangular cross-section divided by the plane of a surface of the panel into two frame portions together defining a recess accommodating an edge of the panel. One or both frame portions form at least one chamber, externally bounded by sheet metal with a wall thickness of not less than one millimeter, adjacent an external face of the framework paralleling the panel. Except for certain intermediate sections at or near the plane of the panel, which may be made of nonmetallic material of heat-insulating character, the framework consists virtually in its entirety of aluminum. The legs of the framework may be laterally split into separably interfitting inner and outer frame members each formed with a pair of chambers on opposite sides of the dividing plane.