Peace Tower
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Peace Tower is a tower in the Canadian Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, Ontario. It stands immediately in front of, and is joined to, the Centre Block, which contains the House of Commons and Senate of Canada.
The Peace Tower is the most prominent part of the buildings. It replaced the 55-metre Victoria Tower, burned in the 1916 Parliament Hill fire; the current tower is 92.2 metres tall.
Built to commemorate the end of the First World War, the Peace Tower contains the Books of Remembrance, listing all of the Canadians who died in service of Canada or allied countries in foreign wars. The wars represented are: The Nile Expedition and Boer (South African) War, The First World War, The Second World War, and the Korean War. The Newfoundland Book of Remembrance was added to the Memorial Chamber after Newfoundland entered Confederation in 1949. Recently a book was added with the names of all Canadians who lost their lives as a result of service to the Canadian Forces since 1947 (excluding deaths attributable to the Korean War). A book commemorating the Canadian Merchant Seamen who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars was unveiled in 1997 — these are the only non-military names found in the chamber. Pages are turned according to a perpetual calendar during a ceremony every day at 11 o'clock. The books are housed in the Memorial Chamber, a room originally built to chronicle the events of the First World War, which has been modified to represent a broad overview of Canadian armed conflict, both foreign and domestic, since Confederation in 1867.
The tower contains an observation gallery offering beautiful views of the city. Its clock is set by the National Research Council of Canada official time signal and is equipped with a 53-bell carillon. The bells weigh from 4.5 kg to 10,160 kg (10 lb to 22,399 lb). The Dominion Carillonneur offers regular recitals. The bell has tolled on many major occasions. Some of them:
- When the body of Pierre Trudeau arrived on Parliament Hill to lie in state--The bell tolled 81 times--one for each year of his life (Trudeau was 80 when he died. However, the bell tolled 81 times because he died three weeks short of his 81st birthday) [1] [2]
- During the 9/11 memorial service in 2001 to signal the end of the 3 minutes of silence.
Like the entire interior and exterior of the building, the tower is decorated with stone carvings, including approximately 370 gargoyles, grotesques, and friezes.
Until the early 1970s, the Peace Tower dominated the Ottawa skyline as a strict 150 ft (45.7 meters) height limit was placed on other buildings; that was rescinded and it is no longer the tallest structure in the city.
On May 25, 2006, the clock atop the tower stopped for the first time since its installation in 25 years. It was inactive, displaying 7:28 for about one day, to the confusion of many Ottawans and visitors. [3] Coincidentally, scripture from the Bible engraved on the entrance to the Peace Tower is taken from Psalms 72:8.
