En el interior, el edificio se convirtió en una máquina para la vida pública: salas universitarias, la biblioteca cantonal y universitaria, y hoy en día, cinco museos. También contiene detalles que no se pueden apreciar desde aquí fuera. El gran aula, la sala ceremonial bajo un techo de cristal, obtuvo su decoración pintada solo más tarde, cuando Louis Rivier pasó años cubriendo sus paredes y techos con un vasto programa de imágenes pintadas directamente sobre el yeso. Si observa el detalle de la escalera en su pantalla, obtendrá una pista del enfoque teatral para entrar al lugar.
Inside, the building became a machine for public life: university halls, the cantonal and university library, and today five museums. It also carries details you cannot read from out here. The great aula, the ceremonial hall under a glass roof, gained its painted decoration only later, when Louis Rivier spent years covering its walls and ceiling with a vast program of images painted directly onto plaster. If you check the stair detail on your screen, you get a hint of the theatrical approach to entering the place.
And then came the sharp turn. On the twenty-fourth of July, nineteen twenty-three, delegates signed the Treaty of Lausanne in that aula. A building raised from a private legacy suddenly became the stage for an international agreement that fixed the population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Beautiful halls can do severe work.
In about four minutes, Saint-Maire Castle shows you an older, less polished face of authority. If you want to come inside here later, the museums are generally open Tuesday through Sunday from ten to five, and closed on Monday.
