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) Luis Rodrigues (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.

Halls of the legislature

The original Burgesses' Hall in 1900.

The reason for the mandate on there being three buildings was to prevent the overly crowded appearance that the original legislative palace had, and to further entice people to send submissions to the design competition that was set up. The winning designs were selected in 1849 with the winning architects being Ernesto Benites for the Burgesses' Hall, Marco Esteves for the Prefect's Hall, and Luis Rodrigues for the Magistrates' Hall; the three were each awarded 250 reals and construction on the Burgesses' Hall began in 1851, the Prefect's Hall in 1853, and the Magistrates' Hall in 1854; King Luciano II was given the honour of laying the cornerstone of the Burgesses' Hall, but it was not until 1858 when the Foral Assembly, which had replaced the Supreme Courts after the viceroyalty became independent in 1852, began to hold sessions in the building for the first time with Emperor Maximilian I attending the building's grand opening. The first session was mostly a ceremony and a luncheon to celebrate the occasion.

The Magistrates' Hall was the second to be completed, it officially opening its doors in 1859; coincidentally, it lined up with the proclamation of the election of Augustine de Alma as emperor. The Prefect's Hall was the final building to be completed, it officially opening its doors in 1860. The opening of the Prefect's Hall was marked by a public celebration on the Capitolium in honour of the final building on the hill being completed and opened, thus ending the more than ten-year long process of the demolition of the old legislative palace and the subsequent construction of the new buildings. The completion of the project also signified the so-called "true beginning" of the Delepasian Confederation as an independent confederation as well as the stabilisation of the confederation after several years of post-independence instability brought upon by the end of the Pelaxian monarchy and the collapse of the Delepasian Kingdom.

As the Delepasian Confederation grew, the buildings of the Capitolium were expanded to handle the increased capacity in both the Foral Assembly and the expanding government bureaucracy needed to handle the admission of new member states into the confederation. In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Delepasian independence, a fountain was erected in front of the Burgesses' Hall lined with statuettes depicting each of the states of the confederation, and the clock tower of Burgesses' Hall was decorated with banners coloured in one of Delepasia's three national colours, those being blue, white, and purple, and the clock itself received a facelift with the hands and numerals being given gold-coloured accents to make them stand out better.

Burgesses' Hall fire, renovations, and modern history

The abandoned ruins of the original Burgesses' Hall, 1916.

In 1911, the original Burgesses' Hall went up in flames due to a poorly-extinguished cigar smouldering in a basket full of discarded paper. Such an event was not unusual, however, as the caretaker of the Burgesses' Hall was called to handle what was initially seen as a small fire. However, when he made it to the room with the burning wastebasket, the fire had already grown at an uncontrollable rate and so the caretaker immediately raised a fire alarm. When the alarm was raised, the Foral Assembly was in session when the clerk of the building's coat check ran into the chamber and interrupted the session by calling for an evacuation. Everyone in the building was ordered out as the flames progressed. Unlike the 1848 fire, members of the public were more inclined to get involved in the evacuation of the Burgesses' Hall; some even began to form human chains to rescue everything they could, with the original Charter of San Lina and the portrait of Mauricio Delepas once again being rescued from the flames; other artifacts rescued included the ceremonial maces, a portrait of King Jeronimo I, and an ornate grandfather clock from the 17th Century which was a gift from Burgundie. Within a day, the Burgesses' Hall was completely destroyed with the only part of the building spared being the reading hall and meeting chamber of the cabinet of the President of the Forals, which was sealed shut by heavy metal doors at the time due to an extensive cleaning; the cleaners were not even aware that the Burgesses' Hall was on fire until they had opened the doors after much of the building had burned down. Like the 1848 fire, there were no casualties or deaths in the fire. The fire was seen as symbolic of the instability which had emerged in Delepasia after the end of the First Great War, with many members of the public speculating that it was the work of anarchists from Pelaxia. The Foral Assembly would temporarily relocate to the Residence of the Edifier and the Burgesses' Hall would be left in ruins for the next ten years with no confirmation on whether or not the building would be replaced or if it was just going to be left abandoned.

Dedication of the new Burgesses' Hall, 1933.

During the years that the Burgesses' Hall was left abandoned, an intense debate would emerge over what to do with the Capitolium; a sizeable amount of legislators called for the closure of the Capitolium and to just simply take the Residence of the Edifier as the new parliamentary building, and others wanted to leave the ruins standing as a monument to the fire. However, with the rampant chaos and instability throughout the confederation, none of these options were seriously pursued, and it would not be until 1922 when the ruins were finally demolished. The new President of the Forals, Fernan Pascual, began to lay out plans to rebuild the Burgesses' Hall in a plan similar to the original, but it was to be larger and more austere-looking while remaining within the Gothic revival style; Pascual had hoped that the rebuilding of the Burgesses' Hall would help in restoring public morale and to represent Delepasia's national revival from the ruins of the chaos from the past several years. The original cornerstone, which was spared from destruction, was relaid by Emperor Augustine II. To prevent further fires, the frame of the new Burgesses' Hall was to be made from steel and much of the interior was to primarily use stonework; the floor plan was refined to make future evacuations easier. The first session to be held in the new Burgesses' Hall was in the new Congress of the Commons chamber in 1926, complete with a huge ceremony for such a major milestone. Public reaction was immensely supportive of the reconstruction efforts, and national pride would grow considerably. The construction of the Burgesses' Hall would be completed in 1933, but much of the interior stonework would take decades to complete, with the last stonework being finished in the year 2000. The dedication of the rebuilt Burgesses' Hall in 1933 by Emperor Augustine III has been seen in historiography as the spiritual rebirth of Delepasia under the Estado Social regime.