Government Building sights in Europe
-
A
Reichstag
The quarter's historical anchor is the 1894 Reichstag, where the German parliament, the Bundestag, has been hammering out its policies since 1999. This followed a total makeover by Lord Norman Foster who preserved only the building's historical shell while adding the striking glass dome. It's well worth queuing for the lift ride to the top to take in the knock-out panorama and close-ups of the dome and the mirror-clad funnel at its centre. Queues are shortest early morning and at night. You can skip 'em altogether if you're disabled, happen to have a kid in a stroller, are on an organised tour or have reservations for the pricey restaurant on top. In these cases, proceed …
reviewed
-
B
Binnenhof
Adjoining the Mauritshuis, the Binnenhof is surrounded by parliamentary buildings that have long been at the heart of Dutch politics, though parliament now meets in a modern building on the south side.
The central courtyard looks sterile now but was once used for executions. A highlight of the complex is the 13th-century Ridderzaal (Knights' Hall). The Gothic dining hall has been carefully restored.
The North Wing is still home to the Upper Chamber of the Dutch Parliament, in 17th-century splendour. The Lower Chamber used to meet in the ballroom, in the 19th-century wing. It all looks a bit twee and you can see why the politicians were anxious to decamp to the sleek new ex…
reviewed
-
C
Rathaus
Hamburg's baroque Rathaus is one of Europe's most opulent, renowned for the Emperor's Hall and the Great Hall, with its spectacular coffered ceiling. There are no fewer than 647 rooms here, but the guided 40-minute tours only take in a small number.
reviewed
-
D
Corral del Carbon
The handsome, horseshoe-arched 14th-century Corral del Carbon was once an inn for coal dealers (hence its modern name, meaning Coal Yard). It houses a government-run crafts shop, Artespaña.
reviewed
-
Old Town Hall
North of the castle, the baroque Old Town Hall, built between 1668 and 1671, is impressive.
reviewed
-
E
Old Town Hall
From Starobrněnská, Mečova runs left to abut the back wall of the Old Town Hall. At Mečova 5, about 5m up the wall, is what looks like the face of a man. The well-lubricated urban legend goes that a Brno councillor who plotted with the Hussites to surrender the town in 1424 was overheard by Borro, Emperor Sigismund's court clown, while a prisoner of the Hussites. Borro escaped and told the story, and the councillor was sealed alive in the wall.
The original, early-13th-century building, which became the Town hall in 1343, has been incorporated into today's structure. A peculiar sight by the entrance on Radnická is a Gothic portal with a crooked middle turret, made by …
reviewed
-
F
Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey)
Just as fact is often better than fiction, taking in a trial in the ‘Old Bailey’ leaves watching a TV courtroom drama for dust. Of course, it’s too late to see author Jeffrey Archer being found guilty of perjury here, watch the Guildford Four’s convictions being quashed after their wrongful imprisonment for IRA terrorist attacks or view the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe being sent down. However, the Old Bailey is a byword for crime and notoriety. So even if you sit in on a fairly run-of-the-mill trial, simply being in the court where such people as the Kray twins and Oscar Wilde (in an earlier building on this site) once appeared is memorable in itself. Choose from 18 …
reviewed
-
Government Buildings
The lane to the right (south), immediately inside the Trinity Gate Tower, passes the 17th-century Poteshny Palace (Poteshny Dvorets) where Stalin later lived. Poteshny Palace was built by Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich and housed the first Russian theatre. Here Tsar Alexey enjoyed various comedy performances; however, in keeping with conservative Russian Orthodox tradition, after the show he would go to the banya (Russian bathhouse), then attend a church service to repent his sins.
The bombastic marble, glass and concrete Kremlin Palace of Congresses (Kremlyovksy Dvorets Syezdov), built in 1960-61 for Communist Party congresses, is also a concert and ballet auditorium which hol…
reviewed
-
G
Senedd (National Assembly Building)
Designed by Lord Richard Rogers (the architect behind London's Lloyd's Building and Paris' Pompidou Centre), the Senedd is a striking structure of concrete, slate, glass and steel with an undulating canopy roof lined with red cedar. It's won awards for an environmentally friendly design, which includes a huge rotating cowl on the roof for power-free ventilation and a gutter system that collects rainwater for flushing the toilets. The lobby and surrounding area are littered with public artworks.
The Welsh National Assembly usually meets in a plenary session from 1.30pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, and seats in the public gallery may be pre-booked, although you can always take …
reviewed
-
H
Old Town Hall
Behind the Great Mill, across a small park, is the Old Town Hall, once the seat of the Old Town council. A well-proportioned Renaissance building crowned with a high central tower typical of its Flemish provenance, it was designed at the end of the 16th century by Antonius van Opbergen, the architect later responsible for the Great Arsenal. The brick structure is delicately ornamented in stone, including the central doorway and a frieze with the shields of Poland, Prussia and Gdańsk.
The Old Town Hall now houses the Baltic Sea Culture Centre and an exhibition hall. Go upstairs to see the foyer, notable for its rich decoration, partly assembled from old burghers' houses. …
reviewed
Advertisement
-
I
White House
Moscow’s White House, scene of two crucial episodes in recent Russian history, stands just north of Novoarbatsky most. It was here that Boris Yeltsin rallied the opposition that confounded the 1991 hard-line coup, then two years later sent in tanks and troops to blast out conservative rivals, some of them the same people who backed him in 1991. The images of Yeltsin climbing on a tank in front of the White House in 1991, and of the same building ablaze after the 1993 assault, are among the most unforgettable from those tumultuous years. These days, things are relatively stable around the White House, where Prime Minister Putin now has his office. The White House – officia…
reviewed
-
J
Parliament House
The dazzling white neoclassical façade of Parliament House at Stormont is one of Belfast's most iconic buildings; in the North, 'Stormont' carries the same connotation as 'Westminster' does in Britain and 'Washington' in the USA - the seat of power. For 40 years, from its completion in 1932 until the introduction of direct rule in 1972, it was the seat of the parliament of Northern Ireland.
More recently, on 8 May 2007, it returned to the forefront of Irish politics when Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness - who had been the best of enemies for decades - laughed and smiled as they were sworn in as first minister and deputy first minister respectively.
The building occupies …
reviewed
-
Adalet Kasrı
Standing near the ugly modern stadium in Sarayiçi, the Adalet Kasrı (Justice Hall; 1561) is a stone tower with a conical roof that dates from the time of Süleyman the Magnificent. In front of it are two stones: on the Seng-i Hürmet (Stone of Respect) people would place petitions to the sultan, while the Seng-i İbret (Stone of Warning) would display the heads of any high-court officers who had offended the sultan.
Behind the Justice Hall is another small bridge. Cross it and on your right you'll see a memorial and museum dedicated to the Balkan Wars. To the left, the path winds past the scattered and scant ruins of the Edirne Sarayı (Edirne Palace).
To get here from H…
reviewed
-
K
Press House
At its northern end, Şos Kiseleff splays out into Piaţa Presei Libere, which is dominated by the giant Press House, a 1956 Stalinist wedding-cake of a structure. It gave a clear message to the citizens of Bucharest - Big Brother is watching you! A potent symbol of the powerful communist regime, until 1990 the house was called the 'House of the Sparks' (Casa Scânteii); behind closed doors it was known as the 'House of Lies'. It's still home to the city's hacks.
You can see the imprint on the tower where the hammer and sickle once were. In front of the building is an artful Intersection of Europe sculpture (Interşectie cu Europe), showing two rods entering a cone from di…
reviewed
-
L
Scottish Parliament Building
The Scottish parliament building, built on the site of a former brewery close to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, was officially opened by HM the Queen in October 2005. The public areas of the parliament building – the Main Hall, where there is an exhibition, a shop and cafe, and the public gallery in the Debating Chamber – are open to visitors (tickets needed for public gallery – see website for details). You can also take a free, one-hour guided tour (advance booking recommended) that includes a visit to the Debating Chamber, a committee room, the Garden Lobby and, when possible, the office of an MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament). If you want to see the parliament in …
reviewed
-
M
Custom House
South along the river is the elegant Custom House, built by Lanyon in Italianate style between 1854 and 1857; the writer Anthony Trollope once worked in the post office here. On the waterfront side the pediment carries sculpted portrayals of Britannia, Neptune and Mercury. The Custom House steps were once Belfast's equivalent of London's Speakers' Corner, a tradition memorialised in a bronze statue preaching to an invisible crowd.
Looking across the River Lagan from the Custom House, East Belfast is dominated by the huge yellow cranes of the Harland & Wolff shipyards. The modern Queen Elizabeth Bridge crosses the Lagan just to the south, but immediately south again is Que…
reviewed
-
N
Town Hall
A short walk south of the castle will bring you to the 15th-century Gothic Town Hall, one of the finest buildings in the city. This is the only relic of the Old Town, having miraculously survived the near-total destruction of the district in WWII.
Szczecin never enjoyed the meticulous postwar reconstruction of other Polish cities, but the Old Town is finally being pieced back together: an attractive line of stylised burghers' houses has been constructed right behind the town hall, in striking contrast to the unbecoming communist-era blocks opposite. As the renewal inches along, the area has started to fill with fashionable cafés and upscale bars. The day the market squar…
reviewed
-
O
Great Arsenal
To the west of St Mary's Church, ul Piwna (Beer St) ends at the Great Arsenal. This being Gdańsk, even such an apparently prosaic building as an armoury is an architectural gem. It's the work of Antoon van Opberghen, built at the beginning of the 17th century and, like most of Gdańsk's architecture, clearly shows the influence of the Low Countries. The main eastern façade, framed within two side towers, is floridly decorated and guarded by figures of soldiers on the top.
Military motifs predominate, and the city's coat of arms guards the doorways. A small stone structure rather like a well, in the middle of the façade, is the lift that was used for hoisting heavy ammun…
reviewed
-
P
Basilica di Santa Chiara
Vast, Gothic and cleverly deceptive, this mighty basilica is actually a 20th-century re-creation of Gagliardo Primario’s 14th-century original. Commissioned by Robert of Anjou for his wife Sancia di Maiorca, the hulking complex was built to house 200 monks and the tombs of the Angevin royal family. Dissed as a ‘stable’ by Robert’s ungrateful son Charles of Anjou, it received a luscious baroque makeover by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro, Gaetano Buonocore and Giovanni Del Gaizo four centuries later, before taking a direct hit during an Allied air raid on 4 August 1943. Features that survived the fire include part of a 14th-century fresco to the left of the main door and a chapel…
reviewed
-
Q
Rathaus
Although the ornate and imposing Rathaus was first erected in 1410, the Weser Renaissance balcony in the middle - crowned by three gables - was added between 1595 and 1618. It's besides the 1200-year-old Dom St Petri. In front stands the 13m-high Knight Roland statue (1404). This is Germany's tallest representation of this just, freedom-loving knight, and his belt buckle is certainly in an interesting position.
However, it's the statue tucked away on the Rathaus' western side, in front of the Kirche Unser Lieben Frauen (Church of our Beloved Lady) that people more readily identify with this city. Sculptor Gerhard Marcks has cast the Town Musicians of Bremen (1951) in thei…
reviewed
Advertisement
-
R
Smolny Institute
Built by Giacomo Quarenghi between 1806 and 1808 as a school for aristocratic girls, the Smolny Institute was thrust into the limelight in 1917 when it became the headquarters for the Bolshevik Central Committee and the Petrograd Soviet. From here, Trotsky and Lenin directed the October Revolution, and in the Hall of Acts (Aktovy zal) on 25 October, the All-Russian Congress of Soviets conferred power on a Bolshevik government led by Lenin. The Smolny Institute served as the seat of power until March 1918. In 1934, Leningrad Party chief Sergei Kirov was assassinated on Stalin’s orders as he left the building, sparking the notorious Leningrad purges. Today St Petersburg go…
reviewed
-
S
Town Hall
This twin-towered town hall, completed in 1950 to commemorate the city’s 900th anniversary, houses the city’s political administration. Something of an Oslo landmark, its red brick functionalist exterior is unusual, if not particularly imag-inative. The entrance is lined with wooden reliefs from Norse mythology and the interior halls and chambers are decorated with splashy and impressive frescoes and paintings by some of Norway’s most prominent artists. It’s here that the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded on 10 December each year. You can view the main hall for free from the front corridor. Guided tours (in English) are available at 10am, noon and 2pm Monday to Friday and on w…
reviewed
-
T
Stadshuset
Built in the National Romantic style using eight million bricks and completed in 1923, Stockholm’s iconic City Hall is home of the Nobel Banquet, held in the Italianate Blue Hall, which is in fact red. More accurately named is the Golden Hall, a glittering spectacle made with 10kg of gold and 68 million mosaic pieces. Tours of the building are fascinating, while a soulful chill on the waterside terrace (the sculptures are by Carl Eldh) is free. For breathtaking views over Gamla Stan, head to the top of the hulking tower. That the tower is exactly 1m taller than Copenhagen’s slightly older City Hall tower is no coincidence – neighbourly rivalries are hard to quench.
reviewed
-
U
Rathaus
This neo-Gothic concoction, completed in 1883 by Friedrich von Schmidt, was modelled on Flemish city halls. Its main spire soars to 102m, if you include the pennant held by the knight at the top. You’re free to wander through the seven inner courtyards, but you must join a guided tour to see the interior, with its red carpets, gigantic mirrors and frescos (tours leave from the Rathaus information office on Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz). The largest of these inner courtyards sometimes hosts concerts. Rathausplatz is the sight of some of the city’s most frequented events, including the Christkindlmarkt, Musikfilm Festival and the Wiener Eistraum (Vienna Ice Dream;).
reviewed
-
Central Committee of the Communist Party
The scene of Ceauşescu's infamous last speech was on the balcony of the former Central Committee of the Communist Party building on 21 December 1989. Amid cries of 'Down with Ceauşescu!' he escaped (briefly) by helicopter from the roof. Meanwhile, the crowds were riddled with bullets, and many died.
On the front façade next to the entrance is a plaque dedicated to the 'young and courageous people' who 'drove out the dictator', thus 'giving the Romanian people back their freedom and dignity'. A statue of a man, broken but put back together again, dominates the small green area in front. The building now houses the Senate.
reviewed
