The autonomous Catalonian Parliament is in its capital, Barcelona; I’ve just returned from there after a post-Christmas break. Cloudless skies and English summer temperatures allowed me to take these pictures the day before New Year’s Eve. The institution can trace its origins back to some 11th century legislative assemblies, which developed into a tricameral system with a written constitution by 1283. Its […]
Parliaments of the World
Parliament Buildings of the World: No 3 – USA
Last week I returned from the United States, where I had been attending some events associated with the loan of the 1765 Stamp Act to the New York Historical Society’s grand reopening exhibition, Revolution! I then extended the trip to include Washington DC in order visit the National Archives, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Archives and the Capitol Visitor Center […]
Parliament Buildings of the World: No 2 – Lithuania
This post is perhaps a tad geeky, but since the all-time most popular entry on this blog turns out to be my musings on the restored Reichstag in Berlin, I now offer you some thoughts on the Seimas in Vilnius, Lithuania. (This could be the start of a glossy coffee table book, Great Parliament Buildings I Have Known. Or maybe not.) Anyway, Parliament buildings are […]
On the Burning of Parliaments
I’m just back from Berlin where I was attending a conference run by the ECPRD – the association of European Parliamentary libraries. Usually I don’t go to these events as they’re not often about archival stuff; however, this year the theme was “Parliamentary history and its communication to the public” which was right up my street. […]
