precondition photos on Flickr

Secretary-General Briefs Press on 2021 Nobel Peace Prize by United Nations Photo

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Secretary-General António Guterres is on his way to brief reporters on 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2021 is awarded to Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.

UN Photo/Evan Schneider

8 October 2021

New York, United States of America

Photo # UN7912835

misericord: stern-faced man (15th Century) by Simon Knott

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St Peter and St Paul, Salle, Norfolk

During their awesome reign over the other great teams of Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, Liverpool football club placed a huge sign in the changing room corridor, so that it was the last thing visiting teams saw before they walked out on to the pitch: This is ANFIELD, it warned. The name alone was enough. Similarly, the cover of the guidebook here proclaims, in a single word, SALLE. Again, it suffices; the word, pronounced to rhyme with call, stands for the building. Perhaps only the name Blythburgh has the same power in all East Anglia.

The greatest East Anglian churches were built in the 15th century. It is often observed that there can never have been enough people to fill them, but this is to miss the point. They were never intended for the forms of worship to which they now play host.

The shape of a late medieval church is not an accident. East Anglian parish churches of the 15th century had many common features; wide aisles to enable liturgical processions, a chancel for the celebration of Mass, places for other altars, niches for devotional statues, a focus towards the Blessed Sacrament in the east, a large nave for social activities, large windows to fill the building with light, a roof of angels to proclaim a hymn of praise, a pulpit for the preaching of orthodox doctrine, benches to enable the people to hear the preaching, and carvings, stained glass and wall paintings of the sacraments, Gospels and rosary mysteries, of the catechism and teaching of the Catholic Church.

As Le Corbusier might have said if he'd been around at the time, a late medieval East Anglian church was a machine for making Catholicism happen.

No longer, of course. The radical and violent fracture in popular religion in the middle years of the 16th century gave birth to the Church of England, and the new Church inherited buildings that were often unsuitable for congregational protestant liturgy - a problem that the Church of England has never satisfactorily solved.

Over the centuries, the problem has been addressed in different ways; celebrating Communion at a table in the nave, for example, and blocking off the chancel for other uses. Although this was challenged by the Laudian party in the early part of the 17th century, it was the way that many parishes reinvented their buildings, and most were to stay like that until the middle years of the 19th century. Some went further: a pulpit placed halfway down the nave, or even at the back of the church, meant that the seating could be arranged so that it no longer focused towards the east, thus breaking the link with Catholic (and Laudian) sacramentalism. For several centuries, Anglican churches focused on the pulpit rather than the altar.

With the rise of the 19th century Oxford Movement, all this underwent another dramatic change, with the great majority of our medieval parish churches having their interiors restored to their medieval integrity, reinventing themselves as sacramental spaces. This Victorian conception of the medieval suited itself to congregational worship, and responded in a satisfactory way to the structure of the building. But still, of course, they weren't full.

This 19th century re-imagining is the condition in which we find most of them today, and Anglican theologians everywhere are asking the question that the Catholic Church asked itself at Vatican II in the 1960s - is a 19th century liturgical space really appropriate for the Church of the 21st century?

It requires a shift in the mind to recall that these were not originally Anglican buildings, but it is a shift we need to make. The idea of a previously unchanging Church now confronting the demands of the modern age is wholly incorrect. These buildings have faced a variety of challenges over the centuries; they have only ever been truly suitable for the use for which they were originally built six hundred years ago.

Two of the largest late medieval churches in East Anglia are just three miles apart, at Cawston and Salle in the middle of Norfolk. These clusters are not uncommon; think of Blythburgh, Southwold and Walberswick in Suffolk, for example, or Lavenham and Long Melford in the same county. But Cawston and Salle are really close - you can see the tower of one from the other. St Peter and St Paul is a complete example of a 15th century rebuilding; St Agnes at Cawston retains its elegant earlier chancel.

If not merely for congregational worship, why were these churches built so big? Impressive as they seem now, they must have been awesome at the time they were built, since they were the only substantial buildings outside of the towns, and would have dwarfed the houses of the parish. Some were in villages; but many were not. Salle church has always been out in the fields. Why are earlier East Anglian churches not so massive? Certainly, East Anglia has its cathedrals; Norwich and Ely pre-date the great churches by several centuries, and Bury Abbey was bigger than either before its destruction. The great majority of East Anglia's churches are piecemeal affairs; typically, a 13th century chancel, which must have been the most substantial part of the building when it was first erected, an early 14th century nave and tower, and perhaps later elaborations of the piece with aisles and a clerestory. Salle and Cawston churches are both rebuildings of earlier structures, but a surprising number of East Anglian churches were not rebuilt, until perhaps the Victorians saw the need for a new chancel, or new aisles. Often, these smaller churches are exquisitely beautiful, as if beauty rather than grandeur was the imperative.

And then, towards the end of the 1340s, a great pestilence swept across Europe; in East Anglia, outside of Norwich which got off lightly, it killed perhaps a half of the population. In emptying the countryside, it completely altered the economic balance; a shortage of labour gave new power to the survivors, perhaps setting in place the preconditions for the capitalism that we can recognise by the 16th century. And, in extinguishing the flower of Decorated architecture, it also gave birth to the great love affair between the late medieval mind and death.

In Catholic theology there is no great divide between the dead and the living. For the medieval Christian, communion was something that existed between all members of the parish, whether alive or dead. Thus, prayers were said for the souls of the dead (who, it was presumed, were saying prayers for the souls of the living).

To ensure that prayers were said for them after their death, the very richest people endowed chantries. These were foundations, by which priests could be employed to say masses for their souls in perpetuity. A priest in such a capacity was called a chantry priest. The masses would be said at a chantry altar, probably in the nave; if the person was rich enough, this might be enclosed in a specially constructed chantry chapel. Many churches had them. After the Reformation, many were pressed into service as family mausoleums or pews.

For the poorest people, there was the opportunity to join a guild, where, for a penny or so a week, they could ensure that the guild chantry priest would say masses for their soul after their death (along with those of the other dead members of the guild). Many of these guilds were organised around particular occupations or devotions, and became a focus of social activity. The investment that produced the income to pay the chantry priests was most commonly in land. The church or guild oversaw the management of the land, which is one of the reasons we have an image of a wealthy pre-Reformation church. Land bought to produce income in this way was known as chantry land, a name surviving in many places today. Those who invested in chantries (and few and far between must have been those who didn't) presumed that they were ensuring prayers and masses in perpetuity; but, of course, this was not to be.

Bequests and chantries seem to have reached their peak in the 15th century. Perhaps the Black Death reinforced the urgency of the task. People did not merely want to be remembered; they wanted to be prayed for. And so, those who could afford it ensured that this was not forgotten by leaving their wealth in the very place that was at the centre of communion: the parish church. The richest paid for the additions of aisles and chapels, or for a new font or rood screen. This was not just a naked desire for the recognition of their family status. There was an underlying insecurity to the new landed classes. They wanted to control their destiny beyond their deaths. And so, their gift would be recorded in the form of a dedicatory inscription. One of these survives on the screen at Cawston, and another on the base of the font at Salle. Orate pro anima, they begin, "Pray for the soul of...", an injunction urgently emphasised by the pre-Reformation liturgy, only to be cursed and defaced by the later Anglicans and puritans. Stained glass was another common gift, as well as images, candlesticks, furnishings. Thus were many churches developed piecemeal.

But sometimes, where a parish could rely on a steady supply of substantial bequests, they might be channelled into a complete rebuilding, as at Salle, a summa cum laude apothesosis, where the new church of the late 15th century survives in pretty much its original form. Sometimes, a single wealthy family would shape and direct the rebuilding of a church. One of the richest families in East Anglia in the 14th and 15th centuries was the de la Poles, the Earls of Suffolk. Their mark can be found throughout East Anglia, but most famously and substantially at Wingfield in Suffolk, and at Cawston in Norfolk. Theirs was a long term project; at Cawston, the tower predates the furnishings of the nave and chancel by almost a century.

So why so vast? Certainly, it was ad maiorem deo gloria, to the Greater Glory of God; but it was also to the greater glory of the de la Poles and their contemporaries. The great landed families of England came into the late middle ages full of confidence, and they were determined to demonstrate it. They had survived the Black Death. They had grown richer on its consequences. They had assumed a political power unthinkable a few centuries before. They controlled not just the wealth but the imagination of their parishes. They asserted orthodox Catholic dogma in the face of rural superstitions and abuses. They imposed a homogenised Catholicism on late medieval England. And, as they increased their secular power and influence, a time would come when they would embrace the Great Idea already beginning to take shape on the continent - protestantism. But that was still in the future.

And so, to Salle. St Peter and St Paul is big. This is accentuated by the way in which it stands almost alone in the barley fields, with only a couple of Victorian buildings and a cricket pitch for company. What an idyllic spot! And yet there is an urban quality to the building, as if this was some great city church in the middle of Norwich or Bristol. It went up in the course of the 15th century, a replacement for an earlier building on the same site, broadly contemporary with neighbouring Cawston. While Cawston was largely the work of a single family, here the building benefited from an accident of history; several very wealthy families owned manors and halls in the parish at the same time, and it so happened that the time was the greatest era of rural church building.

Among them were the Boleyns, the Brewes, the Mautebys, the Briggs, the Morleys, the Luces and the Kerdistons, and some of their shields appear above the great west door, along with two mighty censing angels, characteristic of late medieval piety. A steady stream of hefty bequests meant that no expense needed to be spared, and the mighty tower with its vast bell openings was topped with battlements and pinnacles on the very eve of the Reformation.

As at Blythburgh, St Peter and St Paul benefited from the restraint of a late restoration, and the building as we see it now has no external Victorian additions. It is all of a piece. The porches either side are huge affairs, matching the transepts, and give the effect of a vast animal, a dragon perhaps, sprawling with erect head in the Norfolk countryside. Its tail is the chancel, in itself longer and higher than many Norfolk churches. The aisles are tall, austere, parapeted, the Perpendicular windows arcades of glass. In the porches, the vaulted ceilings are studded with bosses; the central one in the north porch depicts Christ in Majesty, sitting on a rainbow in judgement.

You enter the building from the west, an unusual experience in East Anglia, and your first sight is of the seven sacraments font with its tall 15th century canopy, similar to the cover at Cawston. This one is so big it is supported by a crane attached to the ringing gallery under the tower. The font below is interesting because each panel is supported by an angel holding a symbol of the sacrament above - a pot of chrism oil beneath Baptism, for example. The panels themselves are simply done, and are not particularly characterful, apart from the way that Mary turns away and is comforted at the Crucifixion. This panel faces west, and then anticlockwise are the Mass (viewed sideways, as at nearby Great Witchingham), Ordination (the candidate kneeling), Baptism (a server holds the book up for the Priest to read), Confirmation (the candidate obviously a child), Penance (perhaps the most interesting panel - the penitent kneels in a shriving pew), Matrimony (the couples' hands joined by a stole, she in late 15th century dress) and finally Last Rites (the dying man on the floor under blankets also as at Great Witchingham). The font step has a dedicatory inscription to John and Agnes Luce, asking for prayers for their souls. We know that John died in 1489. Perhaps the fabric of the building was complete by this date.

Beyond the font stretches the vastness of the building, the arcades gathering the eyes and leading them forward to the great east window. The chancel arch is barely there at all, just a simple high opening; but as MR James pointed out, it was never intended to be seen.The sheer bulk of the rood screen dado tells us quite how vast the rood apparatus must have been here, and the arch would have been pretty well hidden. Everything is built to scale; although everything has been cut off above the panels, probably in the late 1540s, the panels themselves are enormous, almost six feet high. As at Cawston, St Gregory, St Jerome, St Ambrose and St Augustine, the four Doctors of the Church, are on the doors. Either side are just two surviving paintings; to the north are Thomas and James, to the south are Philip and Bartholomew. The empty panels are a mystery; the screen stood here for a century before its destruction, so it must have been finished; and the dado seems too high to have been hidden by nave altars. And yet, it has all the appearance of never having been painted.

Because the building is so vast, the surviving medieval glass seems scattered, but there is actually a lot of it and some of it is very significant. Some was moved during the restoration of the early 20th century, when the modern glass in the north transept was installed, and the yellow galley lozenges were thankfully replaced with clear glass in the 1970s. The images in the east window are mainly figures; old kings kneel before young princes, there are armoured men and angels, the remains of a scaly dragon. In the centre at the bottom is a perfect Trinity shield, displayed by an angel looking askance.

Some of the panels are now in the south transept. These include fragments of a set of the orders of angels. A kneeling figure is Thomas Brigg, donor of the transept; the scroll behind him begins Benedicat Virgo, 'Blessed Virgin'. The mother of God sits surrounded by red glory, and two women holding croziers, one of them crowned, may be St Etheldreda and St Hilda. Certainly, the crowned figure holding a cross is St Helena.

Despite the wonders of the font, the screen and the glass, the crowning glory of the building is the set of bosses that line the roof of the chancel. They are easily missed, being very high. There are nine altogether, the first and last set against the walls at the ends of the roof ridge, and they form a kind of rosary sequence of joyful and glorious mysteries. They start with the Annunciation in the west (see left) and then continue with the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Adoration of the Magi, the Presentation in the Temple, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension into Heaven.

There is a fine set of return stalls in the chancel. Although Salle probably never had a college of Priests, all those Masses for the dead must have provided plenty of employment, because we know that there were seven Priests here at a time when the population of the parish was barely 200. Bench ends include heads, a dragon tied up in a knot, a cock, a restored pelican in her piety, and a monkey. The misericord seats feature faces, including one that is quite extraordinary.

Although the roof isn't up to the glory of neighbouring Cawston, it includes lots of original angels and paintwork, including sacred monograms, and around the wallplate part of the Te Deum Laudamus and Psalm 150. These particular texts seem to have provided the inspiration for many late 15th century interiors; the angels in the roof, the animals on the bench ends, the Saints on the rood screen all in harmony: Let everything that has breath Praise ye the Lord!

The nave benches are mostly renewed now, but the pulpit is an elegant example of the 15th century, from the time when a priority began to be placed on preaching. Curiously, it has been rather awkwardly converted into a three-decker arrangement, probably in the 18th century, with the addition of a platform and desk from a set of box pews. A large sounding board has been placed overhead. The box pews suggest that the medieval furnishings were replaced at an early date, although the replacements too have gone now.

Salle is one of those churches full of intriguing little details that might easily pass you by, so great is the wonder of everything around. Those two little corbel heads above the south door, for instance - what were they for? Perhaps they supported an image that could be seen from the north doorway as people entered, although not a St Christopher as the guidebook suggests, I think. There is a pretty piscina in the unfortunate north transept that has been outlined in wood, a memorial and helm above, a tall image bracket in the corner of the wall of the south transept, a floreated piscina nearby.

There are many brasses and brass inlays in the nave floor; one of the most interesting is a chalice brass (although the chalice is now gone) to Simon Boleyn, a Priest, who died in 1489, and to the east of it a pair of brasses to Geoffrey and Alice Boleyn, great-grandparents to Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII. Another pair of brasses are to Thomas and Katherine Rose and their eight children. Unlike many churches, Salle actually retains some of the 'missing' brasses, now locked away for safety. It would be nice to think they could eventually be reset in the floor.

One part of the building that many visitors must miss is the chapel above the north porch. There is no sign indicating it; but the doorway, at the west end of the north aisle, is always open. Inside, the vaulted roof is punctuated by spectacularly pretty bosses which you can view at close quarters. The colour is a bit fanciful, but they are fascinating, particularly the central boss of the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven - how on earth did that survive the Reformation?

This is a tremendous building, a box of fascinating delights. What purpose does it serve now? As I said in the introduction, its size was not in response to the needs of a congregation, and as far as worship is concerned it will never be full. It remains constantly in use, however; for regular services in the chancel, sometimes for concerts and recordings, but also of course for the poshest sort of wedding, the kind only the Church of England can provide, and no doubt other elements of the core business of CofE PLC. It is easy to be cynical, but if they ensure the survival of the building, then so be it.

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Black-footed Ferrets in Preconditioning Pens by USFWS Mountain-Prairie

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Photo taken at the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center in northern Colorado, where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service leads a captive breeding and recovery program where this endangered species is bred and preconditioned for release into the wild.

Photo Credit: Ryan Moehring / USFWS

Austrian Parliament Building. by BIG ALBERT

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The Austrian Parliament Building (German: Parlamentsgebäude, colloquially das Parlament) in Vienna is where the two houses of the Austrian Parliament conduct their sessions. The building is located on the Ringstraße boulevard in the first district Innere Stadt, near Hofburg Palace and the Palace of Justice. It was built to house the two chambers of the Imperial Council (Reichsrat), the bicameral legislature of the Cisleithanian (Austrian) part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Up to today, the Parliament Building is the seat of the two houses—the National Council (Nationalrat) and the Federal Council (Bundesrat)—of the Austrian legislature.

The foundation stone was laid in 1874; the building was completed in 1883. The architect responsible for its Greek Revival style was Theophil Hansen. He designed the building holistically, each element harmonizing with the others and was therefore also responsible for the interior decoration, such as statues, paintings, furniture, chandeliers, and numerous other elements. Hansen was honored by Emperor Franz Joseph with the title of Freiherr (Baron) after its completion. Following heavy damage and destruction in World War II, most of the interior has been restored to its original splendour.

The parliament building covers over 13,500 square meters, making it one of the largest structures on Ringstraße. It contains over one hundred rooms, the most important of which are the Chambers of the National Council, the Federal Council, and the former Imperial House of Representatives (Abgeordnetenhaus). The building also includes committee rooms, libraries, lobbies, dining rooms, bars and gymnasiums. One of the building's most famous features is the Pallas Athena fountain in front of the main entrance, built by Hansen from 1898 to 1902 and a notable Viennese tourist attraction.

The Parliament Building is the site of important state ceremonies, most notably the swearing-in ceremony of the President of Austria and the state speech on National Day each October 26. The building is closely associated with the two parliamentary bodies, as is shown by the use of the term Hohes Haus as a metonym for "Parliament". Parliamentary offices spill over into nearby buildings, such as the Palais Epstein.

The constitution known as the February Patent promulgated in 1861 created an Imperial Council as an Austrian legislature, and a new building had to be constructed to house this constitutional organ. The original plan was to construct two separate buildings, one for the House of Lords (Herrenhaus) and one for the House of Representatives (Abgeordnetenhaus). However, after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (Ausgleich) which effectively created the Dual-Monarchy in 1867, the Kingdom of Hungary received its own separate legislative body, the re-established Diet, and the original plan for two buildings was dropped.

The precursor to the present building was the temporary House of Representatives, located on Währinger Straße, a street off the newly laid out Ringstraße boulevard. It was erected within six weeks in March and April 1861 according to plans designed by Ferdinand Fellner, a famous Austrian theatre architect. In its layout with a ramp and a lobby area, the Abgeordnetenhaus was a model for the later Parliament Building. Completed on 25 April 1861 this temporary structure was opened by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, and soon afterwards mocked Schmerlingtheater, after Minister Anton von Schmerling. It was used by the deputies of Cisleithania until the completion of the present-day parliament building in 1883, while the House of Lords resided at Palais Niederösterreich, then the seat of the Lower Austrian Landtag assembly.

Ringstraße and Parliament Building around 1900

The site for the new building was on the city’s ancient fortifications and walls. In his famous decree Es ist Mein Wille of 1857, Emperor Franz Joseph I had laid down plans for the Ringstraße to replace the old city walls. The parliament building was supposed to feature prominently on the boulevard, in close proximity to Hofburg Palace and the Vienna City Hall.

An Imperial Commission was appointed to consider a design for a Parliament building. Influenced by the industrialist and politician Nikolaus Dumba, the Commission decided that its style should be classical, the argument being that classical Greek architecture was appropriate for a Parliament because of the connection to the Ancient Greeks and the ideal of democracy. After studying rival proposals, the Imperial Commission chose the plan by Theophil Hansen, who could rely on his drafts for Zappeion Hall in Athens. In 1869 the k.k. Ministry of the Interior gave von Hansen the order to design the new Austrian parliament building.

Ground was broken on June 1874; the cornerstone has the date “2 September 1874“ etched into it. At the same time, work also commenced on the nearby Kunsthistorisches Museum and Naturhistorisches Museum on Maria-Theresien-Platz, the City Hall, and the University. In November 1883 the offices of the House of Representatives were completed and put to use. On 4 December 1883 the House of Representatives held its first session under its president, Franz Smolka. On 16 December 1884 the House of Lords under its president, Count Trauttmansdorff, held its first session. Both chambers would continue to meet in the building until the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918.

The official name of the building was Reichsratsgebäude (Imperial Council Building), and the street behind the building, the Reichsratsstraße, still recalls this former name. The word "Parliament" however was in use since the beginning as well.

The building saw tumultuous years during the late years of the declining multi-ethnic Austrian monarchy stretching from Dalmatia to Bukovina, as the House of Representatives was extremely fractious with tensions among liberals and conservatives, German nationalists and Young Czech deputies, as well as between the government and parliament. It became notorious for filibusters, parliamentary brawls and undisciplined deputies throwing inkwells at each other as a common feature. The joke on the Viennese streets was that Athena was so disgusted by the political infighting that she deliberately turned her back to the building. Nevertheless, the building housed the first form of a parliamentary system for many of the people of Central Europe. Some of the former deputies continued their political careers after the dissolution of the Empire and became important politicians in their home countries.

Proclamation of the Republic of German-Austria, 12 November 1918

The Reichsratsgebäude continued to function until 1918, when the building was occupied by demonstrators during the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From 21 October 1918 the remaining German-speaking deputies convened in a "Provisional National Assembly", first at the Palais Niederösterreich, from 12 November onwards in the Parliament Building. On this day the presidents of the assembly officially proclaimed the Republic of German-Austria from the ramp in front of the building. Upon the Austrian Constitutional Assembly election in 1919 and the establishment of the First Austrian Republic, the building itself was renamed the Parlament, with the new republican National Council (Nationalrat) and Federal Council (Bundesrat) replacing the old Imperial House of Deputies (Abgeordnetenhaus) and the House of Lords (Herrenhaus).

The parliament was incapacitated, when on 4 March 1933 Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß took the occasion of a parliamentary law quarrel to cease its function, the first step to the introduction of his Austrofascist dictatorship. By the imposed "May Constitution" of 1934 the Parliament Building became the seat of the Bundestag, the formal legislature of the Federal State of Austria. It finally lost its function with the Austrian Anschluss to Nazi Germany in 1938. The Nazis used it as an administrative seat of the Vienna Reichsgau. During the Second World War, half of the building suffered heavy damage by Allied bombing and the Vienna Offensive. Parts of the interior, such as the former House of Lords Chamber and the Hall of Columns, were completely destroyed.

Soviet troops dancing with locals in front of the burnt-out Parliament Building after the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945

It was in the old Abgeordnetenhaus Chamber that the new Chancellor Karl Renner on 27 April 1945 declared the rebirth of an independent Austria, backed by Soviet troops. Max Fellerer and Eugen Wörle were commissioned as architects; they chose to redesign and readapt the former Lords Chamber for the National Council, and in the process the meeting room of the National Council was rebuilt in a Modern and functional style. Work on the National Council Chamber was completed in 1956. The original appearance of the other publicly accessible premises, such as the Hall of Columns, and the building's external appearance were largely restored to von Hansen's design.

Exterior

Baron von Hansen's design for the Reichsratsgebäude uses the neo-Greek style, which was popular during the 19th century Classic revival. Hansen worked at that time in Athens and was recruited by the Greek-Austrian magnate Nikolaus Dumba, who was on the committee for constructing a new parliament building.

Hansen was inspired by the design of the Zappeion hall in Athens. The original plans saw separate buildings for the House of Representatives and the House of Lords, but for practical and financial reasons it was later decided to house both chambers in one building. Von Hansen's concept of the layout reflected the structure of the Imperial Council (Reichsrat), as was stipulated by the so-called February Patent of 1861, which laid down the constitutional structure for the empire. The two chambers were connected by the great hypostyle hall, which was the central structure. The hall was supposed to be the meeting point between the commoners and the lords, reflecting the structure of society at the time.

The gable has not changed since the monarchy and is decorated with symbols and allegories of the 17 provinces (Kronländer) of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. The ramp is about four meters high. The pillars are in the Corinthian style. On both ends of the roof are quadrigas. The building used to be surrounded by small patches of lawns, which have since been transformed into parking spaces. The building is up to four stories high.

Roof

Corresponding to the horse tamers at the Ringstraße ramp, eight quadrigas made of bronze decorate both ends of the roof. The quadriga is a symbol of victory, driven by the goddess of victory Nike. The attic design of both chambers is rich in symbolism, with 76 marble statues and 66 reliefs forming a decorative ensemble. There are 44 allegorical statues which represent human qualities and branches of human activity, while 32 statues represent famous personalities from Classical Antiquity. The reliefs are allegorical as well and correspond to the areas of public life on which the famous personalities impacted. The crown lands, important cities, and rivers of the empire are portrayed in 50 smaller reliefs. The roof is for the most part kept in the ancient Greek form, decorated with ancient Greek-style caps and palmettes made of copper sheet metal.

Material

It was the emperor’s personal wish to use Austrian marble for the construction of the buildings on the Ringstraße. For that purpose, marble from the village of Laas in the county of Tyrol was brought in and generously used on the Hofburg Imperial Palace and the Reichsratsgebäude. For the architect Baron von Hansen, the white, sturdy stone was perfect, since the building blocks for the façade and statues could be made to look like those in ancient Greece. Over the decades and with increased air pollution, the marble has proved remarkably resilient, stronger than its famous counterpart from Carrara.

Bronzework

Four bronze statues of the horse tamers are located at the two lower ends of the ramp (Auffahrtsrampe). They are a powerful symbol of the suppression of passion, an important precondition for successful parliamentary cooperation. They were designed and executed by J. Lax in the Kaiserlich Königliche Kunst-Erzgießerei in 1897 and 1900. Further bronze works are the two quadrigas on top of the roof, each chariot pulled by four horses and steered by the goddess Nike. The bronze works had to undergo extensive conservation and restoration work in the 1990s, due to damage from acid rain and air pollution. Further oxidation corroded the bronze over the decades and ate holes into the sculptures. For that purpose each sculpture was completely encased in a separate structure for protection them from the elements while they underwent restoration.

Pallas Athene Fountain

Pallas-Athena-Brunnen in front of parliament

The Athena Fountain (Pallas-Athene-Brunnen) in front of the Parliament was erected between 1893 and 1902 by Carl Kundmann, Josef Tautenhayn and Hugo Haerdtl, based on plans by Baron von Hansen. In the middle is a water basin and a richly decorated base. The four figures lying at the foot of Athena are allegorical representations of the four most important rivers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They represent at the front the Danube and Inn, in the back the Elbe and Vltava (German: Moldau) rivers. On the sides little cupids ride dolphins. The statues of the Danube, Inn, and the cupids were executed by Haerdtl, those of the Elbe and Moldau by Kundmann. The female statues above represent the legislative and executive powers of the state and were executed by Tautenhayn. They are again dominated by the Goddess of Wisdom, Athena, standing on a pillar. Athena is dressed in armour with a gilded helmet, her left hand carries a spear, her right carries Nike.

Grounds

Parliament is surrounded by greenery. On the north side the Rathausplatz a park is located, on the southern side a small lawn next to the Justizpalast. Monuments to the founders of the First Republic as well as to Dr. Karl Renner are located on either end.

Interior

The entrance

Layout of the Austrian Parliament Building. Click on the image for a key to the annotations.

The middle axis from east to west is divided into an entrance hall, vestibule, atrium, peristyle and two large rooms at the far end. For the interior decoration Baron von Hansen used Greek architectural elements such as Doric, Ionic and Corinthian pillars, and in the two rooms Pompei-style stucco technique for the walls.

The main entrance at the portico is an exact copy of the gate of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis of Athens, fitted with a bronze portal. From the main entrance at the Ringstraße one passes into the vestibule of the building, which contains Ionic pillars. The walls are decorated with Pavonazzo marble. The niches contain statues of Greek gods. Seen from the entrance starting from the left these are Apollo, Athena, Zeus, Hera, and Hephaestus, and from the right Hermes, Demeter, Poseidon, Artemis and Ares.

Above the niches with the gods is a frieze more than 100 m long by the Viennese artist Alois Hans Schram, running along the corridor and continuing into the atrium. It is an allegorical depiction of the blessing of Peace, the civic Virtues and Patriotism.

Above the entrance that leads to the grand Hall of Pillars (Säulenhalle) is a frieze with an allegorical depiction of Austria on her throne. Representing the motto "Goods and Blood for thy country" (Gut und Blut furs Vaterland), warriors are swearing their loyalty and women are bringing offerings

Located behind the entrance atrium is the grand Hall of Pillars (Säulenhalle) or peristyle. The hall is about 40 m long and 23 m wide. The 24 Corinthian pillars are made of Adnet marble, and all of them are monoliths weighing around 16 tons each. The pillars carry the skylighted main ceiling in the middle and the coffered side ceilings. The floor is made of polished marble resting on a concrete hull. The space below was designed as a hypocaust for a floor heating and air circulation system for the hall.

Located on the transverse axis at the end of the Hall of Pillars are the chamber of the former House of Representatives (on the left ) and the chamber of the former House of Lords (on the right). Von Hansen's idea was to have the Hall of Pillars as the main central part of the building. It was designed to act as a meeting point between the House of Lords and the House of Representatives. Hansen also wanted to have the hall used by the monarch for the State Opening of Parliament and the Speech from the Throne, similar to the British tradition. However, such ceremonies were never held in the building, since Emperor Franz Joseph I had a personal disdain for the parliamentary body. Speeches from the Throne in front of the parliamentarians were held in the Hofburg Palace instead.

The architect von Hansen paid particular attention to the design and construction of this hall. The marble floor was polished in a complicated process. The capitals of the pillars were gilded with 23 carat (96%) gold. Running around the wall was a frieze which was 126 m long and 2.3 m high. It was designed and painted by Eduard Lebiedzki. The monumental piece of work took decades to prepare and design, and four years, from 1907 until 1911, to paint. The frieze showed allegories depicting the duties of parliament on a golden background.

The hall was heavily damaged by aerial bombardments by British and American during World War II. On February 7, 1945 the hall suffered direct hits by aerial bombs. At least two pillars and the skylight were completely destroyed. The gilded coffered side ceilings under which the frieze ran on the walls were almost completely destroyed. The few surviving parts of the frieze were removed and stored. Only in the 1990s were the surviving parts restored as much as possible.

Because of its representative character, the Hall of Pillars is presently used by the President of the National Council and the Federal Council for festive functions, as well as for traditional parliamentary receptions.

Located at the back of the Hall of Pillars is the reception salon (Empfangssalon) of the President of the National Council. The room is fitted with Pompeian wall decorations in stucco and a large glass skylight. Hanging on the wall are portraits of the Presidents of the National Council since 1945.

Further behind the reception salon is the former reception hall for both chambers of the Imperial Council. It is used today for committee meetings and hearings on financial, state budget, and audit court matters by the National Council, thus its present name, Budgetsaal. The hall is richly decorated with marble, stucco, and a rich coffered ceiling in the Renaissance style. Inlaid into the ceiling are the coat of arms of the 17 Kronländer kingdoms and territories represented in the Imperial Council.

Former House of Representatives Chamber

Debating Chamber of the former House of Deputies of Austria

The chamber of the former House of Representatives (Abgeordnetenhaus) is used today by the Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung) whenever it convenes for special occasions such as National Day and the inauguration ceremony of a newly elected Federal President of Austria. The chamber is built in a semicircle of 34 m diameter and 22.5 m depth.

It originally contained 364 seats. With the introduction of various electoral reforms, the number was increased to 425 seats in 1896 and with the introduction of male universal suffrage in 1907 to 516 seats.

The chamber has viewing galleries on two levels. The first gallery has in the middle a box for the head of state. The right side of the gallery is for the diplomatic corps and the left side for the cabinet and family members of the head of state. On both far ends are seats for journalists. The gallery on the second level, which is slightly recessed from the one on the first level, is for the general public.

The chamber is architecturally based on an ancient Greek theatron. The wall behind the presidium is designed like an antique skene with marble colonnades that carry a gable.

Marble Colonnade

The group of figures in the gable are made of Laas marble and depict the allegorical times of the day. The columns and pilasters of the wall are made of marble from Untersberg, the stylobates of dark marble, the decorations of the doors of red Salzburg marble. The wall space between the pillars is made of grey scagliola, with niches in between decorated with statues made of Carrara marble. The statues show historical persons such as Numa Pompilius, Cincinnatus, Quintus Fabius Maximus, Cato the Elder, Gaius Gracchus, Cicero, Manlius Torquatus, Augustus, Seneca the Younger and Constantine the Great. The friezes above were painted by August Eisenmenger and depict the history of the emergence of civic life. Starting from left to right it shows:

Kampf der Kentauren und Lapithen (Battle of the Centaurs and Lapithes)

Minos richtet nach eigenem Ermessen (Minos judges according to his own discretion)

Einsetzung der Volksvertretung in Sparta (Swearing-in of the representatives of Sparta)

Brutus verurteilt seine Söhne (Brutus condemns his sons)

Menenius Agrippa versöhnt die Stände (Menenius Agrippa reconciles the estates)

Sophokles im Wettkampf mit Aischylos (Sophokles in competition with Aischylos)

Sokrates auf dem Markte von Athen (Sokrates visiting the market of Athens)

Anordnung der Prachtbauten durch Perikles (The order of the representative buildings through Pericles. Note: the head of Pericles actually has the features of Baron Theophil von Hansen)

Herodot in Olympia

Plato lehrt die Gesetze (Plato teaches law)

Demosthenes redet zum Volke (Demosthenes addresses the people)

Decius Mus weiht sich dem Tode (Decius Mus dedicates himself to death)

Caius Gracchus auf der Rednertribüne (Caius Gracchus holds a speech from the speaker's platform)

Solon läßt die Athener auf die Gesetze schwören (Solon has the Athenians swear on the laws)

der Friede (Peace)

The chamber of the House of Representatives was important for the history of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Many politicians started their career as deputies, such as Karl Renner, later chancellor and president of Austria, and Leopold Kunschak, later conservative leader. Other deputies from outside core Austria played important roles in their native countries after the First and Second World Wars. When Karl Renner became Federal President, he once gave a speech honouring the historic importance and function of the old chamber:

Important politicians who started their career and had their first democratic experience later played important roles in their native countries after the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. These include:

In Austria

Karl Renner, former deputy of Moravia, later Federal Chancellor and President of Austria

Leopold Kunschak, former deputy of Lower Austria, later Austrian conservative leader

In Czechoslovakia

Tomáš Masaryk, former delegate from Bohemia, later first President of Czechoslovakia

Karel Kramář, former delegate from Bohemia, later first Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia

Vlastimil Tusar, former delegate from Bohemia, later Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia und

Bohumír Šmeral, former delegate from Bohemia, later Czechoslovak Communist leader,

in Poland

Ignacy Daszyński, former delegate from Galicia, later Sejm Marshal of the Second Polish Republic,

Wincenty Witos, former delegate from Galicia, later Prime Minister of Poland,

in Italy

Alcide De Gasperi, former delegate from the Tyrol, later Prime Minister of Italy,

in Yugoslavia

Anton Korošec, former delegate from Styria, later Prime Minister of Yugoslavia

in Ukraine

Yevhen Petrushevych, former delegate from Galicia, later President of Western Ukrainian People's Republic

Kost Levytskyi, former delegate from Galicia, later Head of the Government of Western Ukrainian People's Republic

The Austrian Imperial Council (Reichsrat) was the recruiting school for central and southeastern democracy and socialism.

National Council Chamber

Since 1920 the former meeting room of the House of Lords has been used as a plenary meeting room by the National Council. The House of Lords (Herrenhaus) used to have its chamber where today the National Council convenes. The chamber was designed in the classical style, with a horseshoe-shaped seating arrangement facing the chair. The Chamber of the National Council was destroyed in 1945 during aerial bombardments and was completely rebuilt in a modern style. The new chamber was finished in 1956 and is a typical example of 1950s architecture. Apart from the coat of arms made of steel, the chamber is lacklustre without decoration. The carpet is mint-green, considered to be neutral at the time since it was not the colour of any political party. Green was also said to have a soothing effect, something that apparently weighed in the decision, considering the tumultuous debates the building had to endure before the two World Wars. Behind the speaker's pult is the government bench (Regierungsbank), which is however only fully occupied during important events such as the declaration of the government (Regierungserklärung) or the state budget speech (Budgetrede).

Located next to the Chamber of the former House of Lords is the current Chamber of the Federal Council of Austria (Bundesrat). The room was used by the Lords as an antechamber and informal meeting room. After the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the new republican constitution in 1920, the former Lords room became the Chamber for the Federal Council.

The seating arrangement of the present Chamber of the Federal Council is similar to the other two great chamber halls. Member of the Federal Council sit in a semicircle facing the presidium. In front of the presidium is the cabinet bench. The furniture was completely renewed in 1999. In 1970, the coat of arms of Austria as well as of the nine Austrian states was installed above the presidium.

Culture and tourism[

The exterior of the Austrian Parliament—especially the statue and fountain of Athena—is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Vienna. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) classifies the inner city of Vienna, including the Ringstraße and thus the Parliament Building as a World Heritage Site. It is also a Grade I listed building. There is no casual access to the interior, but it may be seen in a number of ways:

Since October 2005 a visitors centre has been built and opened. Visitors can now enter the building not from the old side entrance, but from the front at ground level.

Austrian Parliament Building 3 by BIG ALBERT