Legendary architecture
The surroundings of Dublin will take you back in time. Less than an hour from the capital, you can discover the famous and millennial Tumulus of Newgrange, a hill 11 m high and 85 m in diameter made of nearly 200,000 tons of stones sheltering engraved galleries and a burial chamber that lights up every winter solstice! You will then take a leap in time and discover the splendors of the High Middle Ages that are the remains of the monasteries of Kells and Monasterboice, including high round stone towers with crenellated silhouettes and loopholes, and imposing Celtic crosses or High Crosses, masterpieces of Christian stone sculpture. At the beginning, simple mounds surrounded by palisades, then keeps or square stone tower-houses protected by wooden forts and then by stone ramparts, the castles were transformed, under the impulse of the Norman kings, into powerful fortresses with thick walls decorated with geometric patterns (zigzags, checkerboards, chevrons...). Not far from Dublin, the town of Trim is home to the largest fortress in the country with a curtain wall measuring nearly 440 m long. Not to be missed either, Malahide Castle, whose oldest fortifications date back to the 12th century. But if you had to visit only one castle, it would obviously be the one in Dublin. The Record Tower is one of the only remains of the great Norman era, while in the crypt you can see the remains of the Powder Tower built on the walls of an ancient fortress dating from the Viking era. Dublin is also home to beautiful religious buildings such as St. Patrick's Cathedral, the longest church in the country, built in the 12th century by the Normans on the site of a5th century chapel and whose beautiful and luminous bays and arches can be admired, or Christ Church Cathedral erected on the site of a wooden church built by the Vikings. Surprisingly, its crypt extends the entire length of the building. The underground of the capital is definitely rich in history! Little marked by the Renaissance and the Baroque, Dublin was transformed at the end of the 17th century with the construction of bridges, the renovation of the castle and the modernization of the fortifications which were adapted to modern artillery with star-shaped plans, thick walls reinforced with earth and projecting bastions. As far as residences are concerned, the era is still marked by a predominance of gabled houses, especially curvilinear ones of Flemish inspiration, and by a resolutely medieval Tudor style.
Stylistic effervescence
The 18th century is the century of classical lines and antique proportions that can be found in buildings with silhouettes decorated with columns, pediments, balustrades and cornices inspired by Palladianism. This was the advent of the Georgian style, oscillating between rigorous sobriety and great formal freedom. Leinster House and Kilmainham Gaol impress by their massiveness and their austerity... far from the whiteness of the colonnades and porticoes of the Bank of Ireland or the Houses of Parliament. The Custom House, topped by a copper dome and with a façade decorated with allegorical sculptures, is another fine example of grandiose neoclassicism. And let's not forget the General Post Office, or GPO, and its superb Ionic portico. But these treasures would seem almost "bland" in comparison to the architectural madness that is the Casino de Marino. Here casino does not refer to a gambling establishment, but to a small house... which is small in name only! A masterpiece of neoclassical Scottish architect William Chambers, the Casino is a veritable miniature palace and temple of illusion: its clay columns conceal the gutters, its curved windows have a reflective effect that prevents one from seeing inside, and its walls and ceilings are covered with trompe l'oeil in stucco and mosaics. Elegance and majesty are found in large Palladian-inspired villas, such as Powerscourt House in County Wicklow, with its long façade (275 m all the same!) decorated with heraldic lions and a double row of curved columns. Its stucco decorations all in interlacing, garlands and floral motifs, were made by the Lafranchini brothers. An Italian influence can be seen in the sumptuous terraced gardens. In Dublin, this 18th century Georgian style was accompanied by new urban forms: terraced houses, an alignment of semi-detached houses along a street or around a square, creating harmony and unity, a feeling reinforced by the sobriety of their facade enhanced by flights of steps, hiding a semi-buried first floor and leading to their superb colored paneled doors surmounted by richly decorated semicircular transoms. The most beautiful examples can be seen in Merrion Square. This sobriety is followed by the astonishing eclecticism of the Victorian era. During this period, architecture oscillated between borrowings from the past and engineering feats, mixing neo-Gothic brick with metal architecture. It was also a period that saw the development of buildings with an educational and pedagogical vocation. The Trinity College Museum Building is one of the most beautiful examples of this eclecticism with its Venetian palazzo silhouette, also borrowing from Byzantine and Romano-Bombardic art. And let's not forget the university's belfry-like campanile designed by Charles Lanyon, the great architect of the Victorian era. The greenhouses of the National Botanic Gardens impress with their elegant glass and metal silhouette. Other Victorian masterpieces include the National Museum of Archeology and History with its rotunda-shaped entrance hall and mosaic floor, and of course the Guinness Building, influenced by the Chicago School and Ireland's first multi-story building with a metal frame. Polychromy of red and yellow bricks, molded decorations, large glass windows and wrought iron balustrades characterize the houses of the Victorian era. Beautiful examples can be seen in the Rathmines and Pembroke neighborhoods. Oscillating between Georgian classicism and Victorian eclecticism, the small coastal towns around Dublin, such as Dun Laoghaire, are also must-sees!
Modern and contemporary architecture
At the turn of the 20th century, residential architecture tended to be more authentic, inspired in particular by the Arts and Crafts movement. Colored tiles, wooden porches and casement windows adorned the houses. In the Mount Merrion neighborhood, these beautiful rustic homes stand side by side with pristine white houses and clean geometric lines, typical of the emerging modernism. In response to its growing population, the city launched the "Dublin Corporation Houses" in the 1920s and 1930s, large properties divided into terraced houses and arranged in a crescent around green spaces. Although concrete was now the norm, the Georgian urban plan was still in use! The post-war period was marked by an international style inspired by the theories of Le Corbusier. The emblematic building of the period is Busaras, the central bus station of Dublin, built in 1953 by Michael Scott, and that we can recognize by its concrete facade punctuated by an alignment of windows very ... monotonous. Sam Stephenson, on the other hand, invented a brutalism with elegant contours, as evidenced by the Central Bank of Dublin and the two towers of the Civic Offices mixing concrete, stone and glass. A land of architectural innovation, Dublin has continued to redesign itself under the pencil strokes of famous architects. Santiago Calatrava gave Dublin its two emblematic bridges: the James Joyce Bridge with its silhouette reminiscent of an open book, and the Samuel Beckett Bridge whose shape is reminiscent of a harp, the country's emblem. Dublin is also and above all the city of Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell, founders of the Grafton Architects agency, and recipients, in 2020, of the prestigious Pritzker Prize, the Nobel Prize for architecture. With Zaha Hadid, they are the only women to have received it! Creators of a sober and pure architecture with brutalist accents, the two architects' watchwords are humanism, altruism and generosity. In Dublin, they have designed the mechanical engineering department of Trinity College and one of the buildings of the finance department near Stephen's Square. A successful dialogue with the existing building can also be found in the Millennium Wing of the National Gallery, which mixes concrete and Portland stone, or in the Trinity Long Room Hub, which alternates stone and glass. Formerly an unsanitary area, Temple Bar, centered around Meeting House Square, has become a fashionable district, with its unusual balconies, colorful facades and, above all, its famous Umbrella Project, made up of retractable sunshade pillars that protect the central square while allowing light to enter. Another amazing requalification is that of Grand Canal Dock. Daniel Libeskind imagined the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, with a superb mirror façade and fluid, transparent sculpted volumes, which has become the focal point of the new Grand Canal Harbor district. On Grand Canal Square, the checkerboard façade of the Marker Hotel is a must-see. And don't hesitate to discover its lobby designed as if it had been excavated from the ground in the manner of the Giant's Causeway. The Capital Dock Dublin tower towers over this district, which is also home to the Google Docks, the largest commercial building in the city, linked since 2014 to the two other buildings of the American giant (Gordon House and Gasworks House) by an astonishing glass and metal footbridge. The Monument of Light or Spire, the 120 m high needle on O'Connell Street, and the Aviva Stadium with its undulating silhouette are among the other famous emblems of this small capital with great architectural ambitions!
