The City Hall in Stockholm, which was built between the years of 1911 to 1923, is noted as being the largest architectural project of the 20th century. It is recorded that over 8 million bricks were utilised in the construction of the building.
Stockholm City Hall has a great view of Lake Malaren, by being situated near the shore. The Stockholm City Hall is built on Kungsholmen Island, an island which is in the Mälaren Lake and part of the city of Stockholm.
The city of Stockholm uses this building for the Municipal Council with 250 government offices for city administrative staff. This representative building of Stockholm was designed by Ragnar Östberg. Ragnar was an architectural leader in the National Romantic form. The building has Nordic Gothic and Northern Italian style of imprints as well.
The actual design within the building is affluently decorated by leading Swedish artists.
Some key features of the building:
•Council Chamber - the 101 councillors meet in this major chamber
•Blue Hall – constructed from handmade bricks. This banqueting room is where the annual Nobel Prize festivities are hosted. The Nobel Prize banquet has been hosted here on the 10 December every year, since 1930. It is called the ‘Blue Hall’ as the initial plan was to paint the bricks blue yet the architect changed that design. The oldest organ in Scandinavia is housed in this hall.
•There is a 106 meter tall tower which is topped with three crowns. These three crowns are a heraldic symbol in Sweden;dating back from the 14th century.
•The Golden Hall has some magnificent wall artworks. The Byzantine-inspired wall mosaic has been composed of 18.6 million pieces of glass and gold.
•The Oval – is an oval shaped vaulted antechamber. The walls of the Oval are decorated in 300 year old tapestries. There are a series of five such tapestries, all originating from France. Each Saturday, wedding services and partnership registrations are conducted in the Oval.
The Blue Hall and Golden Hall can be rented for special festivities or functions by organisations and companies.
There is a small park between the building and shore of Mälaren. There are several artfully constructed sculptures in this park.
Throughout the year, visitors are able to enter the City Hall under guided tours. For gifts and souvenirs that represent the City Hall and Stockholm, there is the City Hall Shop. A great view of Stockholm city can be seen from the City Hall tower. Guided tours of the tower are done during the summer season. A lift can take you up half way to the top of the tower;the rest is by stair case. There is also the tower museum, situated half way along the length of the tower.
An open courtyard is part of the City Hall. There are also points on the roof, one on each side. The one has a sun ornament on the top and the other has a moon ornament on the top.
The Stockholm City Hall is known as Stadhuset in Sweden, and is one of the major tourist attractions.