Presidential Homes around the world
Published on 7/10/2007
Kremlin (Russia)
[see pix 01]
The Moscow Kremlin is a historic fortified complex at the very heart
of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River (to the south), Saint Basil's
Cathedral (often mistaken by westerners as the Kremlin) and Red Square
(to the east) and the Alexander Garden (to the west). It is the best
known of kremlins (Russian citadels) and includes four palaces, four
cathedrals, and the enclosing Kremlin Wall with Kremlin towers.
The first recorded stone structures in the Kremlin were built at the
behest of Ivan Kalita in the late 1320s and early 1330s, after Peter,
Metropolitan of Rus had moved his seat from Kiev to Moscow. By 1475,
the principalities of medieval Russia were united under Grand Prince
Ivan III, who assumed the title of the Grand Prince of All Rus,
envisioning Moscow as the only legitimate successor to Rome and
Constantinople. In order to illustrate his imperial ambitions, Ivan
organised the reconstruction of the Kremlin, inviting a number of
skilled architects from Renaissance Italy, like Pietro Antonio Solari
and Marco Ruffo. During Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, the
French forces occupied the Kremlin from 2 September to 11 October.
When Napoleon fled Moscow, he ordered the whole Kremlin to be blown
up. The Kremlin Arsenal, several portions of the Kremlin Wall and
several wall towers were destroyed by explosions and fires damaged the
Faceted Chamber and churches. Explosions continued for three days,
from 21 to 23 October. Fortunately, the rain damaged the fuses, and
the damage was less severe than intended. After that, it took the
Soviets to take the government from Petrograd to Moscow again on 1918.
The complex now serves as the official residence of the President of
Russia.
Palac Prezydencki (Poland)
[see pix 02]
The Palac Prezydencki in Warsaw, Poland, is the elegant classicist
latest version of a building that has stood on the Krakowskie
Przedmiescie site since 1643. Over the years, it has been rebuilt and
remodeled many times. For its first 175 years, the palace was the
private property of several aristocratic families. In 1791 it hosted
the authors and advocates of Poland's May 3rd Constitution, Europe's
first modern codified national constitution, and the world's second
after the U.S. Constitution.
It was in 1818 that the palace began its ongoing career as a
governmental structure, when it became the seat of the Viceroy of the
Polish (Congress) Kingdom under Russian occupation. Following Poland's
resurrection after World War I, in 1918, the building was taken over
by the newly reconstituted Polish authorities and became the seat of
the Council of Ministers. During World War II, it served the country's
German occupiers as a Deutsches Haus and survived intact the 1944
Warsaw Uprising. After the war, it resumed its function as seat of the
Polish Council of Ministers. In July 1994 it replaced the much smaller
and more difficult to protect. Belweder palace as the official
residence of the Polish President.
[see pix 03]
official workplace of the President of Brazil. It is located at the
the term "o Planalto" is often used as a metonym for the executive
branch of the government.
"creator" of most of the important buildings in the new capital of
using fine lines and waves to compose the columns and exterior
structures. The Palace is four stories high, and has an area of 36,000
Presidential Palace (Vietnam)
[see pix 04]
The Presidential Palace of Vietnam, located in the city of Hanoi, was
built between 1900 and 1906 to house the French Governor-General of
Indochina. It was constructed by Auguste Henri Vildieu, the official
French architect for Vietnam. Like most French colonial architecture,
the palace is pointedly European- the only visual cues that it is
located in Vietnam at all are mango trees growing on the grounds.
When Vietnam achieved independence in 1954, Ho Chi Minh refused to
live in the grand structure for symbolic reasons, although he still
received state guests there, and he eventually built a traditional
Vietnamese stilt house and carp pond on the grounds. Today, Ho Chi
Minh's Mausoleum stands nearby and the Presidential Palace remains
part of Hanoi's cultural core. The palace hosts government meetings.
Palazzo del Quirinale (Italy)
[see pix 05]
The palace, located on the Via del Quirinale and facing onto the
Piazza del Quirinale, was built in 1573 by Pope Gregory XIII as a
papal summer residence. It was also used as the location for many
papal conclaves. It served as a papal residence and housed the central
offices responsible for the civil government of the Papal States until
1870. In September, 1870, what was left of the Papal States was
overthrown. About five months later, in 1871, Rome became the capital
of the new Kingdom of Italy. The palace was occupied during the
invasion of Rome and became the official royal residence of the Kings
of Italy, though in reality some monarchs, notably King Victor
Emmanuel III (reigned 1900-1946) actually lived in a private residence
elsewhere, the Quirinale being used simply as an office and for state
functions. The monarchy was abolished in 1946 and the Palace became
the official residence and workplace for the Presidents of the Italian
Republic.
Grassalkovich Palace (Slovakia)
[see pix 06]
The Grassalkovich Palace is a palace in Bratislava and the seat of the
President of Slovakia. It is situated next to the Summer Archbishop's
Palace. The building is a Rococo/late Baroque summer palace with a
French garden. It was built in 1760 for Count Antal Grassalkovich, a
Hungarian noble of Croatian origin serving as the head of the
Hungarian Chamber (a sort of ministry of economy and finance for the
Kingdom of Hungary), by architect Anton Mayerhofer. It features many
beautiful rooms and an impressive staircase.
Rashtrapati Bhavan (India)
[see pix 07]
Rashtrapati Bhavan is the official residence of the President of
India, located in New Delhi. Until 1950 it was known as "Viceroy's
House" and served as the residence of the Governor-General of India.
During the Delhi Durbar year of 1911, it was decided that the capital
of India would be shifted from Calcutta to Delhi. This was announced
on December 12 by King George V. As the plan for New Delhi took shape,
the Governor-General's residence was given an enormous scale and
prominent position. The British architect Edwin Landseer Lutyens, a
key member of the city-planning process, was also given the prime
architectural opportunity of designing the building. The Viceroy
declared that the palace was to be classical, but with an Indian
motif.
Schloss Bellevue (Germany)
[see pix 08]
on the north edge of the Tiergarten park, beside the Spree, near the
Berlin Victory Column, with the address "Spreeweg 1". It has been the
principal residence of the German President since 1994. Its name
derives from its beautiful view over the Spree. It was built in 1786
for Prince Ferdinand of Prussia, the younger brother of King Frederick
II of Prussia, and was designed by architect Philipp Daniel Boumann as
a summer residence, on the site of a house built in 1743 by
Knobelsdorff. It was the first Neoclassical building in Germany, and
has three main elements: a central building of 19 bays, with a central
pediment supported by Corinthian columns, with wings on either side
(the "ladies' wing" and the "Spree wing"). It is surrounded by a park
covering 20 hectares.
It served as the official residence of the Crown Prince of Germany
until 1918. The treaty ending the Franco-Prussian War was signed here
on 3 September 1870. In the mid-1930s, it was used as a museum of
ethnography, before being renovated as a guest house for the Third
Reich. It was damaged in May 1945, at the end of the Second World War,
and refurbished substantially in the 1950s. From 1957, it was a
secondary residence of the President of Germany, a pied a terre in
Berlin in addition to his primary residence at the Villa Hammerschmidt
in Bonn. It was refurbished again in 1986/7, and Richard von
here in 1994, after the German reunification. It was reconstructed
from 2004 to 2005 to remedy defects in earlier renovations. The
President of Germany used Schloss Charlottenburg for representative
purposes during this period. Schloss Bellevue became his primary
residence again in January 2006.
The White House (USA)
[see pix 09]
The above is the White House in 1860. The architect of the White House
was chosen in a competition, which received nine proposals, including
one submitted anonymously by Thomas Jefferson. President Washington
traveled to the site of the new federal city on July 16, 1792 to make
his judgment. His review is recorded as being brief and he quickly
selected the submission of James Hoban, an Irishman living in
Charleston, South Carolina. The building Hoban designed is verifiably
influenced by the first and second floors of Leinster House, a ducal
palace in Dublin, Ireland, which is now the seat of the Irish
Parliament. Construction began with the laying of the cornerstone on
October 13, 1792. A diary kept by the District of Columbia building
commissioner records that the footings for the main residence were dug
by slaves. The foundations were also built by slave labor. The initial
construction took place over a period of eight years, at a reported
cost of $232,371.83 ($2.4 million in 2005 dollars). Although not yet
completed, the White House was ready for occupancy on or about
November 1, 1800.
Casa Rosada (Argentina)
[see pix 10]
La Casa Rosada (Spanish for "the Pink House"), is the official seat of
the executive branch of the government of Argentina. The Casa Rosada
was built at the eastern end of the Plaza de Mayo, a large square
which since the founding of the city of Buenos Aires has contained the
top political institutions of Argentina. The current building,
however, dates back only to 1873 and was constructed over the
foundations of an earlier customs house, post office, and fortress.
Its balcony, which faces the square, has served as a podium for many
and Pope John Paul II, who visited Buenos Aires in 1998. Madonna sang
her filmed rendition of the song "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," for
the movie Evita, from the balcony after a meeting with the then
President Carlos Menem.
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