Palais de Rumine
The Palais de Rumine is a public building in the Swiss city of Lausanne . It is located in the Center district on Place de la Riponne, on the western edge of the old town. The building was built from 1898 to 1906 according to plans by Gaspard André in the Florentine Renaissance style and is part of the inventory of cultural assets of national importance . It served as the main building of the University of Lausanne ; today it houses five museums and part of the Lausanne cantonal and university library . The name of the palace is Gabriel de Rumine .
history
Gabriel de Rumine , a civil engineer of Russian origin who was born in Lausanne , died in 1871 at the age of 30 and left the city a legacy of 1.5 million francs . He made the condition to double the fortune through investments and to use it for the construction of a public building 15 years after his death. There were plans to expand the Lausanne Academy , which was founded in 1537, into a full-fledged university, which is why Rumine's legacy was just right. The commission set up by the city in 1886 decided to build a building that would house the university, the cantonal library and various museums. The location should be the Place de la Riponne, immediately to the west and below the old academy.
The city announced an architectural competition in September 1889 . By the submission deadline at the end of April 1890, 36 projects had been received that were characterized by a wide variety of stylistic devices. The jury did not award the first prize because none of the projects fully met the requirements. First of all, the city decided on the project of the third-placed Dominique Demierre. However, this was later disqualified after it was found that he worked in the same office as the jury member Henri-Paul Nénot . Finally, the Lyon- based Gaspard André was awarded the contract. Political disputes delayed the start of construction for several years. The opponents criticized the location, the concentration of too many different institutions in one place and the failure to drill holes in the difficult building site.
An additional delay resulted from the death of Gaspard André in 1896. The execution of his project was entrusted to the four architects Louis Bezencenet, Charles Girardet, Francis Isoz and Charles Melley. Construction work finally began in January 1898 with the demolition of the existing buildings on the site. The most modern techniques of the time were used in the construction. For example, reinforced concrete was used according to the Hennebique process, but mainly various limestones and granites were used. The building was originally supposed to open in 1903 on the occasion of the centenary of the canton of Vaud . But the first rooms were only occupied in the following year. The official opening took place on November 3, 1906. Here, on July 24, 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, in which the population exchange between Greece and Turkey was established.
The University of Lausanne used the building until 1970 when it moved its headquarters to the Dorigny district .
Todays use
The Palais de Rumine now houses the following institutions:
- Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne
- Cantonal Museum of Archeology and History
- Musée cantonal des beaux-arts de Lausanne
- Cantonal Geology Museum
- Cantonal Zoology Museum
- Cantonal coin cabinet
architecture
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The floor plan consists of a central structure and two recessed side wings with the rooms for the library and the art museum. The main hall with a glass roof dominates the central project , with two lecture halls underneath . The main part contains a well-designed distribution system (with a trompe l'oeil effect increasing the main staircase to a monumental level), an atrium with a water basin and a network of galleries and ramps arranged one above the other.
The building is in the style of the Florentine Renaissance . Out of consideration for the view of the buildings on the old town hill and for reasons of economy, André had to forego the row of arcades characteristic of this style , which is why the building was one storey lower than originally planned and appears more cumbersome due to the changed proportions. The embossed substructure with the ground floor takes up almost half the height of the facade, the use of stone reinforces the rustic character. To compensate for this effect, André - inspired by the Villa Medici - had two small towers built on both sides of the central building over the service stairs, both of which end in a loggia . On both sides of the main entrance, a sculpted portal gable, there are two free-standing columns with griffin figures .
Artistic equipment
When it opened, the ceiling of the auditorium was still unpainted because the acoustics had to be improved with various renovations. In 1911, Councilor of State Camille Decoppet commissioned the painter Louis Rivier , who was best known for painting Protestant churches in the canton of Vaud, with the decoration. Rivier created a complex iconography consisting of 41 image components with Christian and secular elements on an area of 1000 m². The style is partly based on the Italian Renaissance . Rivier was busy with the execution from 1913 to 1924. In a niche in the auditorium there is a bust of Gabriel de Rumine, created by the sculptor Raphaël Lugeon . The oil painting Les hommes du port from 1933 by René Auberjonois adorns the upper level of the atrium. At both ends of the zoology gallery, two high reliefs adorn the pediment of the two doors. They represent the female allegories “anatomy” and “geography”. Research in the building archives revealed that they were created in 1904 by Rodo .
An unusual piece of equipment can be found on the base of the northern garden on Rue de l'Université. This is a heavy iron gate that was used when the Simplon Tunnel was excavated . This gate was used to hold back water masses if they swelled too much for drainage. The company Brandt, Brandau & Cie. Commissioned with the tunnel construction . donated the gate to the canton of Vaud. For this reason, the official inauguration ceremony for the tunnel took place in May 1906 in the almost completed Palais de Rumine. The gate was originally intended to be exhibited in the basement, but was then set up outdoors and encased in a wall vault.
literature
- Bruno Corthésy: The Palais de Rumine in Lausanne . Ed .: Society for Swiss Art History. Swiss art guide, volume 821/822 , Series 83.Bern 2008, ISBN 978-3-85782-821-8 .
Web links
- Palais de Rumine on the website of the canton of Vaud
Individual evidence
- ^ Bruno Corthésy: The Palais de Rumine in Lausanne. Pp. 5-7
- ^ Bruno Corthésy: The Palais de Rumine in Lausanne. Pp. 10-11
- ^ Bruno Corthésy: The Palais de Rumine in Lausanne. P. 13
- ^ Bruno Corthésy: The Palais de Rumine in Lausanne. Pp. 15-16
- ^ Bruno Corthésy: The Palais de Rumine in Lausanne. Pp. 20-26
- ^ Bruno Corthésy: The Palais de Rumine in Lausanne. Pp. 26-27
- ^ Bruno Corthésy: The Palais de Rumine in Lausanne. Pp. 32-35
- ^ Bruno Corthésy: The Palais de Rumine in Lausanne. Pp. 36-38
Coordinates: 46 ° 31 '24.8 " N , 6 ° 38' 2" E ; CH1903: 538250 / 152 791