Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/144

* MUNICIPAL ARCHITECTURE. 112 MUNICIPAL ARCHITECTURE. can judge of the great possibilities of the Greek coltiiiiiiur style even better fruui these many public porticoes than from the temples. Finally, the so-called leschoi were public halls for ban- quets and other reunions and celebrations. To the list of Greek inunieipal buildings should be added .such decorative and memorial struc- tures as the choragic monument of Lysicrates anil the Tower of the Winds at Athens, public fountains, and the like. KoME. The Romans developed municipal archi- tecture even furlher in magnilieence and variety after the second century B.C. Their theatres were richer in decoration ; their amphitheatres were a new form altogether; their circus was architec- turally more signilieant than the stadium anil hip- podrome. The Roman Forum, which was at first an irregular sipiare without architectural beauty, was later l)cirdered by basilicas (q.v.), great halls for commercial and judicial purposes, while memorial and triumphal arches were placed at its entrances and alon'; its main road. Rome was embellished with new fora by successive emperors, these gifts culminating in the stupen- dous Forum of Trajan, with its basilica, temple, arch, and triumphal column. In the early days of the Empire a new type of city was developed, in which the various main groups of pul)lic build- ings were united and harmonized by vast stretches of porticoes. Such ])ortic<)cs in Rome itself were the I'orticus Maxima", extending to the Tiber, and the mile-long Porticos Triumphi in the Field of
 * Mars, They masked the poorer streets. In the

cities of Syria and the rest of Western Asia a great era of rebuilding set in, the old blank- walled main streets being rejjlaeed by colonnaded boulevards, decorated with statues and intersect- ing at right angles. This type, which originated at .Antioch. can now best be stuilicd at Palmyra, Gerasa. and other cities near the coast-line. Till" many new Human colonies and municipali- ties in North .friea and Syria gave even more oc<'asion than the old cities for the carrying out of a. regular plan of municipal architecture. The cities of Theveste and Thamugadi are important examples. Ponipcii gives an older type. The Pompeian Forum. with its well-preserved basilica: its curiir or municipal meeting halls, with their eolomnules; its Temple of .luiiiter. Hanked by memorial arches; its "Pantheon.' with the money- chan;;ers' shii])s; its market hall. T("mplc of A'emis. lounging-gallery. and otheV well-grouped striu'tures, shows how the gov("rnment of a jiro- vincinl town of moderate size groupud the public buildings around its main scpiare. Of the theatres, those at Aspendos in Asia Alinor, and Orange in France, are the best pre- served: of the amphitheatres, those of Rome (the Colosseum), Verona. Capua. Aries. NImes. and Thysdrus; of the basilicas, those of Maxentius in Konii". of Pompeii, and iif Tr("ves. With tlM" decline of f?oman power and the transfer of the capital to Byzantium, the focis of activity in municipal architecture was shifted and Cimstantinople. or New Rome, became the scene of an extraordinary work of reconstruction iindi"r Constantine. Theodosius. and (later) .Tus. tinian. Fora. pr.laces, triumphal arches, colon- nades, basilicas, baths, and churches gave splen- dor to the new city, though less perfect in detail than the best Roman works. M<"anwhile, until ♦ he final overthrow of the nlder capital, public buildings, porticoes, and bii-iljens wore still be- ing erected in Rome, and the majestic ruins of the Basilica of ila.xcutius and Constantine attest the importance of these expiring ell'orts of Konian art. After the fifth century there was nothing but lethargy in municipal architecture until the later Middle Ages. iliDOLE AiiES, The growth of municipal archi- tecture in the Middle Ages was very j;radual and depended Jargcly upon the character of city gov- criunent. In the monastic and feudal cities there were no works of nuinicipal architecture of any importance. Conditions were more favorable to the erection of municipal buildings in the free communes and episcopal cities, which possessed j complete or partial autonomy. The most important municipal buildings were the hotel-dc-ville in France, the Rathaus in (Jer- many, and the piiUiz~i> iiuhbUco or com iini mile in Italy. The cities of Northern and Central Italy, of Northern France and the Netherlands, of Northern Germany (especially the Hanseatic League), were most conspicuous for such build- ings during the Romanesque and Gothic i)eriods. The plan of the ciinmunial palaces varied accord- ing to whether the local, constitution provided for meetings of a large body of citizens or only of a select few inside the building. The Doge's Palace in Venice had halls for the Ciran Consiglio and others for the Council of Ten and the smaller council. At the more democratic Padua, the im- mense hall, with its wagon roof — the largest in Europe — provided for larger meetings. At Udine and Piacenza are the best examples of a whole lower story open in vaulted arcades for the ]iopu- lar meetings, with halls on the second floor for the smaller committees. These palaces in Lom- bardy were usiuilly termed brolctti (Como, Ber- gamo, Cremona, ilonza, etc.). The main meeting room on the second lloor was nearly always pro- vided with a balcony or rin(jhirni. from which annoiuiccments were made to the people. The cities of Tuscany and Umbria, later in achieving independence (except Pisa), erected, however, even more magnificent public palaces than their northern neighbors. The Palazzo Vec- chio and Bart'cllo in Florence, the Palazzi Pub- blici at Siena and Perugia, built diring the Gothic period (1"3.">0-13.50), are the largest in Italy and especially remarkable for magnificent towers, llanlly a city in Italy, even oiu" enjoy- ing but a modicum of administrative autonomy, but had a public )>alace of some sort, and in some cities there were two jKilaces, the episcopal and the civil. Such connnunal ])alaces were much rarer in feudal France: they are almost wholly wanting in the southern and central provinces. But the jiowerful cities of the Netherlands, Lille, Louvain, ^Mechlin. Brussels. Ghent, Bruges. Vpres. .Vrras, and Li^ge, built as magnificent jmblic palaces as their Tuscan compeers. That of Brussels, with its frreat central towers, is a fine cxam])le in the Ui were prominent in many cities of both Northern Eu- rope and Italy. The comnuinal organization in the cities was isiially based upon the association of the labor and trade guilds. Tt was the officers of thesfi guilds who. eominff tnycther for nnituiil benefit, originated in most cases the citj' administration