Peace Tower

For other uses, see Peace Tower (disambiguation).

The Peace Tower, viewed from the front.

File:Christmas Lights by rossoblack.jpg

The Peace Tower with projected light decorations for Christmas.

The Peace Tower (officially The Tower of Victory and Peace) is a focal clock tower, sitting on the central axis of the Centre Block of the Canadian parliament buildings in Ottawa, Ontario. The present incarnation replaced the 55 m (180 ft) Victoria Tower after the latter burned down in 1916, along with most of the Centre Block. It today serves as a Canadian icon, and appears on the obverse of both the Canadian fifty-dollar and twenty-dollar bills.

Characteristics

Designed by Jean Omer Marchand and John A. Pearson, the tower's height reaches 92.2 metres (300 ft), over which are arranged a multitude of stone carvings, including approximately 370 gargoyles, grotesques, and friezes, keeping with the Victorian High Gothic style of the rest of the parliamentary complex.

At its base is a porte-cochere within four equilateral pointed arches, the north of which frames the main entrance of the Centre Block, and the jambs of the south adorned by the supporters of the Royal coat of arms of Canada. Near the apex, just below the copper clad, steeply pitched roof, are the tower's clock faces, one on each of the four facades. The mechanical workings of the timepiece were manufactured by the Verdin Company, and are set by the National Research Council Time Signal. One level below, running around the circumfrence of the tower's shaft, is an observation deck. This was the highest accessible space in Ottawa until the early 1970s; the Peace Tower dominated the Ottawa skyline, as a strict 45.7 m (150 ft) height limit was placed on other buildings. That limit, however, was later rescinded, leading the Peace Tower to lose its distinction as the city's tallest structure.

Memorial Chamber

The Peace Tower was built not only to stand as an archicetural feature and landmark, but also to function as a memorial. It thus houses the Memorial Chamber, a vaulted room directly above the porte-cochere, with stained glass windows, and with various features illustrating Canada's war record, such as the steps manufactured from stone quarried from Flanders' fields, and brass plates made from spent shell casings found on battlefields and bearing the name of each of Canada's major conflicts during the First World War. The stone walls were originally to have bore the names of all Canada's servicemen and women who had died during World War I; but, without enough space for all 66,000 names, it was later decided to place Books of Remembrance there instead; these books list all Canadian soldiers, airmen, and seamen who died in service of the Crown– whether that of Britain (before 1931) or the that of Canada (after 1931)– or allied countries in foreign wars, including the Nile Expedition and Boer War, the First World War, the Second World War, and the Korean War. The displays were later modified to represent a more broad overview of Canadian armed conflict, both foreign and domestic, since Confederation in 1867.

After John Pearson canvassed British artists in stained glass for designs for the Memorial Chamber's windows, he settled on Frank S.J. Hollister of Toronto for the task, and who's proposal was presented in 1925 to the Department of Public Works for the Governor-in-Council's approval. Each window is divided into stacked quadrants by stone mullions, and contain allegorical figures amongst heraldic symbols, including the Royal Arms of Canada, the arms of each of the provinces, and those of the United Kingdom.

Carillon

Accompanying the Peace Tower clock is a 53-bell carillon, conceived by an act of parliament as a commemoration of the 1918 armistice that ended World War I, and was innagurated on 1 July 1927, to mark the 60th anniversary of Confederation. The bells weigh from 4.5 kg to the 10,160 kg (10 lbs to 23,399 lbs) bourdon, all cast and tuned by Gillett & Johnston in Croydon, England, and which are used by the Dominion Carillonneur for both regular recitals and to toll to mark major occasions such as state funerals and Remembrance Day. Each bell is stationary and is struck by its internal clapper, itself mechanically linked to the carillon keyboard, to create a note, a particular one on the music scale for each bell. In this way, the carillon plays similarly to a piano, allowing the carillonneur to change the sounds by varying the way he or she strikes the keys.

History

Coming immediately after the destruction of the parliament buildings by fire in 1916, the Peace Tower's conception coinceided with the end of the First World War. With this in mind, Prime Minister Robert Borden dedicated the site of the tower on 1 July 1917, with the words: "[the tower will be a] memorial to the debt of our forefathers and to the valour of those Canadians who, in the Great War, fought for the liberties of Canada, of the Empire, and of humanity." Two years later, the Peace Tower's foundation stone was laid in 1919 by Prince Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), during his wider royal tour of Canada, and the structure was topped out in 1922. The Prince of Wales returned to Ottawa again in 1927 to dedicate the altar of the Memorial Chamber, and to innagurate the Dominion Carillon, the first playing of which on that day was heard by listeners across the country on the first ever coast-to-coast radio broadcast in Canada.

On May 24, 2006, the clock atop the tower stopped for the first time in 28 years. It was inactive, displaying 7:28 for about one day, to the confusion of many Ottawans and visitors.

External links

• Parliament Hill History
• Books of Remembrance Online
• Parliament Hill Hillcam
• Parliament Hill Website
• Peace Tower Carillon