CITY HALL

The city hall, the largest municipal building in the country, was built in a neo-Renaissance style (largely inspired by the Louvre and city hall in Paris) at a cost of $ 24 million. Before joining the observatory, an exhibition briefly explains the history of building the building that lasted over 30 years and ended in 1901. A few minutes of ascension in a small elevator can reach the top of the tower. The 360 ° view on the city is beautiful. It is all: Art Museum, Masonic Temple, skyscrapers, Benjamin Franklin Bridge, Broad Street, petro-chemical complexes… The tower is decorated with the statue of William Penn, the founder of the city. Heavy of 27 tons, 11 meters tall, it was produced by Alexander Calder, sculptor from Lawton, a few miles from Philadelphia. It is interesting to see the details of the statue. William Penn looks to the northeast, to the shore where he signed the 1682 peace treaty with the Indians. The Charter he holds in his left hand really contains a text. Until 1987, a tacit agreement meant that no building in the city center would exceed William Penn. The construction of the One Liberty Place tower in 1987 followed by the Comcast Center ended, resulting in the disappointing outcome of the city's sports teams for more than two decades, the idea that curse had been thrown, «The Curse of Billy Penn». But it remains the largest sculpture in the world ever placed at the top of a building.