Architecture
Contenido
El también denominado Palacio de las Leyes, es un edificio de un marcado estilo neoclásico, cuyas fachadas, paredes interiores, bóvedas y columnas están recubiertas de distintos mármoles procedente del país, llevó casi tres décadas de construcción.
Consta de tres grandes naves y varias salas anexas, un piso superior, donde funciona la Biblioteca del Poder Legislativo con más de 250 000 volúmenes y algunos despachos de parlamentarios, además de un gran subsuelo en el que hay oficinas, depósitos y talleres de imprenta y encuadernación. La fachada principal del edificio se encuentra alineada con el eje de simetría de la Avenida del Libertador Brigadier General Juan Antonio Lavalleja generando una perspectiva de jerarquía inspirada en los bulevares parisinos de Haussman.
Hall of Lost Steps
In the nave is the great Hall of the Lost Steps. Inspired by the great cathedrals of the Renaissance, it is composed of two continuous barrel vaults and a majestic central skylight, which separates the two chambers in which the chambers of senators and representatives meet. The walls of both rooms are lined with walnut and mahogany wood. The benches occupied by parliamentarians are made of that same wood.[4].
Initially designed with a flat roof by the architect Meano, it was modified by the architect Moretti and the roof began to consist of two continuous barrel vaults, which are cut at the intersection by means of four main arches on which the square skylight rises, which characterizes the building from the outside. The vault of the central nave of Pasos Perdidos is divided into two equal parts by the vault of the transept that crosses it.
The entrance to each of the chambers is crowned with three stained glass windows that form a semicircle, the entrance to the House of Representatives contains an Allegory of the Republic and that of the Chamber of Senators an Allegory of Justice.
Its overhead lighting is done by three large stained glass windows. Two of them with a curved surface adapted to the curvature of the vaults and a third with a flat surface located at a higher height within the skylight that crowns the intersection of both vaults.
This hall has eventually been used for art exhibitions, concerts and other events such as international summits.[5][6][7] It has functioned as a burial chapel for numerous prominent personalities of Uruguay: the poetess Juana de Ibarbourou, the writers Mario Benedetti,[8] Eduardo Galeano[9] and Carlos Maggi, the actress China Zorrilla,[10] the painter Carlos Páez Vilaró,[11][12] the champion of the world Alcides Ghiggia,[13] the politicians Líber Seregni, Jorge Batlle,[14] Tabaré Vazquez, Jorge Larrañaga, Danilo Astori and José Mujica among others. The ashes of José Gervasio Artigas were also deposited there while restoration work on his mausoleum was carried out (2011-2012).[15].
Currently, the Hall of the Lost Steps preserves in its interior the original copies of the Constitution of 1830 and the Declaration of Independence of 1825 "Declaration of Independence (Uruguay)").
Session rooms
The Palace houses two session rooms or hemicycles for both chambers of the General Assembly of Uruguay, the Chamber of Senators and the House of Representatives. Both venues are built in the form of an amphitheater, with greater capacity for the one intended for the House of Representatives than for the Senate. The plinth of the first, which extends to the lower part of the stands, is made of Italian walnut, worked in Milan, and the furniture is made in the same way. The wall tapestries are red, the railings are chiseled bronze, the columns are gray, and the pilasters are pink, thus keeping in harmony with the decoration of the Hall of the Lost Steps. Everything in the Chamber of Deputies that is made of walnut in the Senate has been built in mahogany.[16].
The skylight of the Palace
The Skylight is, together with the Hall of Lost Steps, the element that distinguishes the Legislative Branch building from other buildings of the same category in the rest of the world.
The original project by architect Víctor Meano, inspired by the Parliament of Vienna, intended that his building give the same impression of horizontality that Hansen's work gave. Architect Gaetano Moretti, on the other hand, understood that the dimensions of the building's volume merited a high culmination in the center of the building.
And so it was decided to build a square skylight in the center of the building, decorated with various Greek-style ornaments, among which the twenty-four caryatids stand out, each almost four meters high, made by different sculptors, allegorically representing industry, law, mathematics, physics, architecture, agriculture, painting, commerce, poetry, medicine, music and sculpture, each one repeated twice.
In addition to its intrinsic aesthetic value, the importance of the skylight created by Moretti lies fundamentally in the fact that it managed to adapt the shape of the built volume to the space in which it is located, and that it favored the perspective that the building generates from any angle viewed.