Pictures of my favorite public office building
I took some pictures from my favorite workplace. Until some years ago, we had our bureaus in this building. Now I´m only working there once in a while. It´s not ideal for IT-service, with all its stairs, contorted, labyrinth-like corridors, niches, half-floors and hidden rooms. But it has personality, and behind nearly every corner there is some ornament, a sculpture, a fountain or something like that.
Now I´m mostly working in a building, which is old, funktional, with no frills at all. How I miss working in the other one, which was built in 1899 as a monumental building meant to show the prosperity and importance of the bourgeoisie (and as a sting against the nobiliy, because its tower is higher than the highest part of the palace nearby).
That´s one of the "minor" staircases. It has wrought-iron handrails and its stone pillars are ornamented with "simple" patterns or stone flowers.
That´s the major staircase. The handrail is made of sandstone, the pillars show the heads of men and women, each one different (allegorical figures, I suppose).
Here is one of those pillars:
And here are some pieces of the handrail:
The entrances to the representative rooms like those of the mayor or the halls are elaborately decorated.
Here is the door of one of the assembly halls:
The whole corridors leading to such halls is adorned with bold reliefs, some "simply" with flowers or patterns, some with allegorical pictures like this one on the left side of the entrance to the assembly hall. It´s a pelican feeding its hatchlings with its blood.
Quite often those bold reliefs come in pairs, facing each other, like Justice/Injustice
Love/Hate (or Concord/Discord)
The most beautiful entrance is that of the Ceremonial Hall:
View opposite of the Ceremonial Hall with the gallery under the dome covered with stylized stars:
But not only the important locations are decorated with a love for details.
This was the door to the porter´s lodge, for example:
A balcony at the top of a staircase:
There are fountains (when I started working there, they were bickering merrily, but now there´s not enough money left for such frivolities):
... and statues
And here is the tower. It´s guarded by four knights, one at every corner, and every quarter of an hour the sound of the bell echoes loudly in all those contorted patios of this vast building.
Really, I miss working there!
Now I´m mostly working in a building, which is old, funktional, with no frills at all. How I miss working in the other one, which was built in 1899 as a monumental building meant to show the prosperity and importance of the bourgeoisie (and as a sting against the nobiliy, because its tower is higher than the highest part of the palace nearby).
That´s one of the "minor" staircases. It has wrought-iron handrails and its stone pillars are ornamented with "simple" patterns or stone flowers.
That´s the major staircase. The handrail is made of sandstone, the pillars show the heads of men and women, each one different (allegorical figures, I suppose).
Here is one of those pillars:
And here are some pieces of the handrail:
The entrances to the representative rooms like those of the mayor or the halls are elaborately decorated.
Here is the door of one of the assembly halls:
The whole corridors leading to such halls is adorned with bold reliefs, some "simply" with flowers or patterns, some with allegorical pictures like this one on the left side of the entrance to the assembly hall. It´s a pelican feeding its hatchlings with its blood.
Quite often those bold reliefs come in pairs, facing each other, like Justice/Injustice
Love/Hate (or Concord/Discord)
The most beautiful entrance is that of the Ceremonial Hall:
View opposite of the Ceremonial Hall with the gallery under the dome covered with stylized stars:
But not only the important locations are decorated with a love for details.
This was the door to the porter´s lodge, for example:
A balcony at the top of a staircase:
There are fountains (when I started working there, they were bickering merrily, but now there´s not enough money left for such frivolities):
... and statues
And here is the tower. It´s guarded by four knights, one at every corner, and every quarter of an hour the sound of the bell echoes loudly in all those contorted patios of this vast building.
Really, I miss working there!