Capitolium of Castadilla

Capitolium of Castadilla
Capitolium Castraediliae Capitolio de Castadilla Kapitauli des Kastetia
Clockwise from top: Burgess' Hall Prefect's Hall Magistrate's Hall
General information
Type	Parliament buildings
Architectural style	Gothic Revival
Location	Santa Maria, Castadilla
Current tenants	National Assembly of Castadilla
Construction started	Burgesses' Hall: 1922 Prefect's Hall: 1853 Magistrates' Hall: 1854
Completed	Burgesses' Hall: 1933 Prefect's Hall: 1860 Magistrates' Hall: 1859
Renovated	Burgesses' Hall: 1943, 1977, 1999, 2021 Prefect's Hall: 1951, 1973, 2000, 2008 Magistrates' Hall: 1949, 1967, 1998, 2012
Owner	Imperial Lands Commission
Height	Burgesses' Hall: 92.2 m (302.49 ft) Prefect's Hall: 56.7 m (186.02 ft) Magistrates' Hall: 60 m (196.85 ft)
Dimensions
Other dimensions	Burgesses' Hall: Width: 144 m (472.44 ft) Length: 75 m (246.06 ft) Prefect's Hall: Width: 85.40 m (280.18 ft) Length: 101.19 m (331.99 ft) Magistrates' Hall: Width: 88.98 m (291.93 ft) Length: 114.55 m (375.82 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	Burgesses' Hall: 11 Prefect's Hall: 3 Magistrates' Hall: 6
Lifts/elevators	9
Grounds	89,030.8 m2 (958,319.56 sq ft)
Design and construction
Architect	Xulian Morales (Burgesses' Hall) Marco Esteves (Prefect's Hall; Magistrates' Hall)

The Capitolium of Castadilla (Latin: Capitolium Castraediliae; Pelaxian: Capitolio de Castadilla; Reform Tainean: Kapitauli des Kastetia), simply the Capitolium (Latin: Capitolium; Pelaxian: Capitolio; Reform Tainean: Kapitauli), is a hill owned by the Imperial Lands Commission which houses the buildings of the Castadillaan National Assembly in the nation's capital of Santa Maria. It is a part of the Grand Capitolium, a government complex which consists of the Capitolium, representing the legislative branch, the Residence of the Edifier, representing the executive branch, and the Supreme Court building, representing the judicial branch. The Capitolium consists of three buildings, all built in the style of Gothic revival architecture, and attracts millions of visitors annually.

The Capitolium has long been used as the location of legislative buildings since the colonial era, with the earliest building on the site housing the Supreme Courts, which was the viceregal legislature from 1531 until 1852. However, the Prefect's and Magistrates' Halls were built in the mid-19th Century while the current Burgesses' Hall was built in the 1920s after the previous Burgesses' Hall building burned down in 1911. The buildings, and the grounds they were built upon, were designated as National Monuments of Delepasia in 2001 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the enactment of the Charter of San Lina, the constitutional document which governed Los Rumas and was seen as the beginning of Delepasian and Castadillaan constitutionalism; it is the last of segment of the Grand Capitolium to have been designated as a National Monument.

History

Pre-colonial era

Not much is known about what buildings were erected on the hill that the Capitolium stands on, asides from records and even evidence suggesting that there was once a castle erected on the site dating back to the Undecimvirate era when the lands of what is now Santa Maria was within the lands of the vassal kingdom of Castraedilus. The foundation of the former castle was unearthed during the construction of the Burgesses' Hall in the 1850s and were subsequently transported to an empty plot of land which was soon declared the Edifier Memorial Imperial Park; the foundation of said castle remains in the lands of the park to this day. That aside, the castle was the seat of the King of Castraedilus from the kingdom's establishment, and during the second warring states period the castle remained in use until it was sieged in the 1310s and the last living descendants of Castraedilus' royal line were wiped out, thus leaving the castle to erode away and be used as building material for nearby houses.

When the ruins of the castle was completely used up, all that remained was its foundations which attracted the curiosity of those who visited the hill. One of the most notable instances of activity on the hill after the Undecimvirate period was a diritta match that made use of the former castle's foundations as an informal court. This match was recorded by a Latin scholar visiting from the Kingdom of Septemontes where he wrote about his sheer fascination on how such a game, which was banned in Septemontes due to its association with slavery, had managed to retain some sort of popularity in eastern Vallos. The laal which was said have been used for the match is on display in the current Burgesses' Hall in recognition of the civilisations which have existed on Vallos prior to the arrival of the Pelaxians in 1497.

Early legislative palace

The first legislative palace built on the Capitolium, 1573.

The arrival of the Pelaxians under the leadership of Mauricio Delepas in 1497 would see the beginnings of what would become Delepasian and Castadillaan constitutionalism, but from 1497 until 1505 the nascent settlement of Los Rumas initially served as the capital of the Viceroyalty of Los Rumas. Four years after the arrival of Delepas, the Viceroyalty was granted the Charter of San Lina which served as the constitutional document for the viceroyalty; one of the provisions written in the Charter stated that the capital should be moved from Los Rumas to a natural harbour in the Bay of Los Rumas where it would be safe from both enemy attacks and serve as a vital trade node between the viceroyalty and the rest of Pelaxia's colonial and trading interests pertaining to the Southern Route. The site was ultimately picked in 1504 and was officially established as Santa Maria and was designated as the new capital shortly afterward. By then, the foundations of the former castle that stood on the nearby hill had already sunken into the ground.

Work began quickly on building the new capital, with work on the first permanent viceregal legislative building starting in 1531. The original legislative palace was a patchwork of medieval and renaissance architecture, mostly the result of competing architects building the initial palace as well as subsequent additions throughout the 17th and 18th Centuries, with the final additions being made in 1802. With the onset of the Pelaxian Revolution in 1804 and the establishment of the First Pelaxian Republic, the palace became a satellite of Pelaxia's legislature; all laws approved on mainland Pelaxia had to be approved in the Los Rumas half of the republic and vice versa. Although ambitious and satisfying to the Rumian subjects, the lack of any communications infrastructure beyond sending over mail by ship meant that in practice the satellite legislature idea invited a major institutional flaw for the republic in that there were many instances in which each half of the republic would independently propose legislation and send it to the other half, and most of the time the legislation would be defeated. This would prove to be instrumental in ensuring the fall of the republic and the restoration of the Pelaxian monarchy in 1814.

The first legislative palace in flames, 1848.

In 1848, the legislative palace on the Capitolium would be largely destroyed in a fire which emerged after a cigar was carelessly disposed of in a bin full of discarded paper which was further fueled by a separate fire which emerged due to the copper flues of the palace furnaces melting from the hotter than usual heat which in turn caused the furnace fire to be fed an increasing supply of oxygen. The resulting fire had spread quickly, and had first emerged in the Council of Prefects chamber where the flames were first spotted by a couple of female tourists visiting the building. The palace was quickly evacuated almost immediately with the Conucil of Burgesses, which was in session, being interrupted. Several evacuees would go out of their way to rescue some of the viceroyalty's most treasured artifacts, including the original copy of the Charter of San Lina as well as a portrait of Mauricio Delepas. Shortly after the palace was completely evacuated, the flames would explode in a huge fireball that could be seen as far as Puertego and was heard as far as Las Joquis. The growing crowd which had gathered to watch the flames were noted to have been very celebratory of the flames, mostly thanks to the fact that no one was in the palace as well as the unusual sight of such a spectacle. There were no casualties or deaths in the fire, a fact that was cited by the Primate of All Vallos as nothing short of a miracle.

The Supreme Courts was temporarily relocated to the Residence of the Edifier which was nearing completion at the time of the fire until the ruins of the burned palace were demolished and the new legislative buildings were built in its place on the Capitolium. A design contest would be held in the viceroyalty to determine the designs to be used for the new buildings; it was agreed that there would need to be three buildings built. One to serve as the main legislative palace, one to serve as the viceroy's main office, and the other two to serve as government administration offices and offices for members of the Council of Prefects and the Council of Burgesses.