Neo Black Movement of Africa (Black axe) Category: All, Anti-imperial, Campus cult, Cult, Fraternity, Secret society National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity). Daily Meal Offering at NBM (dana) Legend: Busy = Someone is already booked to bring lunch. Lunch offering time will be at 10:45am. S = Monastics / Sangha. Included public holiday dates for Victoria from Business Victoria website.
The Obafemi Awolowo University massacre was a mass murder which took place against students of Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria on 10 July 1999. It resulted in the deaths of five people and left eleven others injured, all of whom were students of OAU.[1]
It was perpetrated by an organizeddeath squad of 40 members of the Black Axe Confraternity branch at the university. They invaded the Awolowo Hall of the university at around 4:30 A.M., clad in black trousers and black T-shirts, their faces hidden by masks; they carried and used shotguns and hatchets against students.[2]
Background[edit]
An account of what led to the massacre is given by Prof. Roger Makanjuola's book Water Must Flow Uphill (Adventures in University Administration). Makanjuola, following the massacre, became vice chancellor of the university and took an active role in both investigating and punishing those from the university involved in the murders.[3]
Makanjuola writes about an initial incident and its aftermath that occurred in the weeks before the murders: 'On Saturday, 7 March 1999, a group of Black Axe members held a meeting in Ife town. After the meeting, they drove back to the campus. On the main road, Road 1, leading into the campus, they were overtaken by some students in another car. For whatever reason, they were enraged and gave chase to the students. The students, seeing them in pursuit, raced hastily to the car park outside Angola Hall and ran into the adjacent Awolowo Hall for safety.[3]
The Students’ Union, which had also received information that secret cult members were gathering in a house in the senior staff quarters, mobilised in response to the incident. Led by George Iwilade, the Secretary-General, a group of them drove to the house, officially occupied by Mr. F.M. Mekoma, and forced their way into the boys’ quarters. They found nine individuals inside, eight of them students of the University, with a submachine gun, a locally manufactured gun, an axe, a bayonet and the black clothing and regalia of the Black Axe cult. The University authorities were informed, and the members of the secret cult were handed over to the police. They were held in police custody and taken to the Chief Magistrate’s Court where two weeks later they were granted bail.'[3]
Makanjuola documents and raises concerns over the way the matter was handled by both the police and court system who broke from protocol, common sense and destroyed evidence and how this led to the failure to be able to prosecute the Black Axe members involved in the incident. Prof. Roger Makanjuola writes: 'The case was heard on 31 March, and to the utmost amazement of everyone, the Chief Magistrate discharged and acquitted the arrested individuals. The students who had apprehended the cult members were not called as witnesses. The investigating police officer, Corporal Femi Adewoye, claimed that the witnesses could not be located and actually stated in Court, “I tried to contact the complainants in this case, all to no avail.[3]
To date, there is no complainant in the case. Since all the accused persons denied the allegations against them and there is no complainant, there is no way the allegations can be proved.” This was the submission of the prosecuting police officer! Usually, in such cases, witness’ summons were served through the University Administration but this did not happen. The trial was concluded in two court appearances in eight days.[3]
The Chief Magistrate also ordered that the submachine gun be sent to the police armourer and the other exhibits be destroyed, thus eliminating all the evidence, and making it impossible to re-open the case. The Judicial Enquiry recommended that the Magistrate be reported to the Judicial Commission for appropriate disciplinary action. Nothing came of this, as nothing came of all the other recommendations of that Panel.'[3]
Prof. Roger Makanjuola recalls following the failed prosecution the Black Axe cultists returned to the university to study. Much to the dismay and concern of fellow students. Under pressure from students the university's authorities moved to suspend the cultists involved by issuing a 'release' but failing to send the specific students official letters informing them of their suspension.[3] Makanjuola says: 'Shortly afterwards, the University was closed as a result of a student crisis. When it re-opened three months later, the cult members returned to the campus and were seen attending lectures. The students raised an alarm once more. In response to this, the University issued a release on 2 July re-affirming the suspensions of the cult members. The letters of suspension were dated 8 July and it is doubtful whether those affected actually received them before the tragic events two days later.'[3]
In addition to the direct factors given in accounts by Makanjuola and others, it is also stated that factors relating to creating the necessary favourable environment for the massacre to having occurred also played a part. Such factors include a general increase in campus violence due to university and government employment and sponsorship of campus cults. Peluola Adewale writes 'campus cultism had not always been pronouncedly violent until 1980s, and this change coincided with a period when governments started unleashing serious attacks on university education.[4]
This began with the introduction of some outrageous charges and later, in 1986, the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), which have now been transformed into a general neo-liberal economic programme. In order to repress the resistance of students against commercialisation of education and other anti-poor policies, the government and university authorities employed the service of campus cultists. The social background of elements who used to be members of cult groups prepared them for such dastardly activities.[4]
They were mostly from upper and middle-class families, and therefore did not really have problems with anti-poor policies of the government and university management, for instance how to pay the contentious charges being imposed on students. Today, there are students from poor background joining cults. They largely do so because campus cultism provides a veritable platform to raise money through extortion and other criminal activities.'[4]
Another factor is said to be the university's administration at the time of the massacre. Vice Chancellor Wale Omole said to have taken no action, aside from perhaps protecting, known campus cultists. Peluola Adewale states 'his (Vice Chancellor Wale Omole) administration created an enabling atmosphere for the attack. For the eight years he spent in office, Omole did not show any seriousness in fight against campus cultism, rather it was commonplace for cultists apprehended by students to get their way back to the university unscratched. While student activists were expelled for leading students in various demands, it was on record that no cultist was punished by the Omole-led management.'[4]
Massacre[edit]
On the night of 9 July 1999, student groups held a party at Obafemi Awolowo University. The 'Mirror Online' reports: 'members of Kegites Club on the campus, Man O’ war members, and various other student leaders — both former and incumbent, gathered at the open ground between Angola and Mozambique Halls.' Later in the night many of the party-goers began occupying the cafeteria of Awolowo Hall whilst others returned to their halls of residence to sleep.[5]
At between 3:00 and 3:30 am (now 10 July 1999) a large number of cultists (reported to be between 22 and 40) of the Black Axe confraternity arrived to carry out a pre-planned assault on the university with the intention of carrying out the murders of several prominent members of the student union. Allegations that these assassinations were sponsored by the university's vice chancellor, Wale Omole, remain to this day but it is unclear if this is the case. It is said 'one of the cultists, Kazeem Bello, aka Kato, confessed that Wale Omole had a hand in their July 10 dastardly operation.'[6][7]
Upon arriving at the university the Black Axe cultists 'drove through the main gate and proceeded to the car park next to the tennis courts in the sports center. They disembarked there and went on foot along a bush path to Awolowo Hall, where they violently interrupted the gyration, firing guns and also wielding axes and cutlasses.'[3]
Although the order of the events that followed vary from account to account (in terms of who was killed in what order) it is clear that following the assault 4 people were left dead, another died from gunshot wounds later, one more survived from a gunshot wound and 'Twenty-five others received minor injuries, which were sustained during the stampede out of the Awolowo Hall cafeteria and later on during the attack.'[3]
The Mirror Online reports: 'The victims, which included the then Students’ Union Secretary General, George Yemi Iwilade, (fondly called Afrika); 400 level medical student, Eviano Ekelemu; a graduating student, Yemi Ajiteru; 100-Level Philosophy student, Babatunde Oke, and Ekpede Godfrey were gunned down by the “marauding beasts” in Blocks 5 and 8, Awolowo Hall.'[5] Prof. Roger Makanjuola writes: 'Tunde Oke was still alive but died on the operating table. Four others, George Iwilade, Yemi Ajiteru, Efe Ekede and Eviano Ekelemu, were brought in dead. Eviano Ekelemu bled to death from gunshot wounds to the groin and thigh. The other three died from gunshot wounds to the head.'[3]
During the attack several accounts state the Black Axe members were heard to be 'shouting, “Legacy, come out!”' referring to the suspended Students’ Union President, Lanre Adeleke.[8] Additional targets of the attacks are described also. Prof. Roger Makanjuola's account states the same and he also writes: 'During the course of the incident, the attackers also shouted the names of “Afrika”, George Iwilade, and “Dexter”, the Chief of the Kegites, demanding that they come out.'[3]
Of the targets of the massacre Lanre Adeleke (Legacy) managed to escape by jumping from a balcony after hearing the gunfire. “Dexter”, the Chief of the Kegites, also escaped unharmed. George Iwilade (Afrika), the Secretary-General of the Students’ Union and a Law student was not so lucky. Upon entering his room the Black Axe 'shot him immediately in the head. Then they smashed his head with their axe to make sure he was dead'.[9]
It is reported George Iwilade (Afrika) was the only successfully assassinated victim. 'Afrika, who was said to have carried out the arrest (relating to the incident on Saturday, 7 March 1999), was mercilessly butchered while the other four were just unfortunate victims'[5]
Prof. Roger Makanjuola gives the order of events as being: 'They first entered Room 184, where they shot and killed Efe Ekede, a Part II Psychology student. In Room 230, they shot Charles Ita, a Part II Law student. A group of the attackers then shot Yemi Ajiteru, a Part II Religious Studies student, through the head in the corridor outside the Kegites’ headquarters. In Room 273, they found George Iwilade (Afrika), the Secretary-General of the Students’ Union and a Law student, and shot him through the head, along with another occupant, Tunde Oke, a Part 1 student of Philosophy, who was shot in the abdomen.[3]
When the attackers got to Room 271, the room allocated to the suspended Students’ Union President, Lanre Adeleke (Legacy), they found that he had escaped. Legacy was in his room when he heard the first gun shots..... The band of thugs proceeded to Fajuyi Hall on foot, where they shot and killed one more student. That individual, Eviano Ekelemo, a medical student, was certainly not a student activist, but they shot him anyway.'. However, the order in which the victims were killed varies in various testimonies by a number of witnesses.[3]
Prof. Roger Makanjuola's account of the Black Axe cultist's escape is: 'The murderers left Fajuyi Hall on foot and went through the bush path behind the Hall back to their vehicles. They drove to the Students’ Union building, which they ransacked. They returned to their vehicles and drove out of the University through the main gate. The security staff, having heard gunfire, fled for their lives. Thus the exit of the marauding thugs was unchallenged.'[3]
Aftermath[edit]
Names Of High Temples In Nbm
The day after the attack it is reported 'President Adeleke presided over an assembly in the enormous amphitheater of Oduduwa Hall; he demanded the immediate resignation of Wale Omole, the loathed vice chancellor who impeded student efforts to eliminate cults (Omole, for example, failed to expel the previously apprehended eight cultists). An award of 10,000 nairas ($100 U.S.) was offered for Omole’s capture and hundreds of students occupied the administration building, refusing to leave until Omole was fired.'[2]
Prof. Roger Makanjuola writes of what followed the massacre: 'In the aftermath of the attack, the whole university was enveloped in fear and there was chaos in the halls of residence. However, within a short time, the President of the Students’ Union, Lanre Adeleke, was able to restore order and mobilise his colleagues. The students went to the town searching for the perpetrators in locations where cult members were thought to be living. They “arrested” three individuals and brought them back to Awolowo Hall. These were Aisekhaghe Aikhile, a Part I student of Agricultural Economics, Emeka Ojuagu, and Frank Idahosa (Efosa). Efosa and Ojuagu were arrested in a public transport vehicle that was about to leave Ife.[3]
The students exhibited black clothing, two berets and two T-shirts, that had been found in Ojuagu’s bag, which was claimed to be the Black Axe uniform. Efosa was a known member of the Black Axe. He had been expelled from the University of Benin and was later admitted for a diploma programme in Local Government Studies in Ife. The three of them were savagely beaten and tortured in the Awolowo Hall “Coffee Room”, the traditional venue for such events. The inverted commas have been employed because coffee had not been known to be served there for many years. Efosa and Oguagu are said to have confessed to participating in the attacks during their “interrogation”, and Efosa is said to have gone further to state that the attack was organised to avenge the humiliating treatment of the Black Axe members who had been arrested in Mr. Mekoma’s house on 7 March.[3]
In the course of the interrogation, Aisekhaghe Aikhile died, and his body was taken to the hospital mortuary. The interrogations also yielded the information that 22 Black Axe members were involved, six from the University, four from the University of Lagos, four from the University of Ibadan, and eight from the University of Calabar. There was also a separate claim that more students from the University of Benin were also involved.[3]
The VC, Professor Wale Omole, had been out of the country on 10 July 1999, the day of the attack and in his absence, the Deputy VC (Academic), Professor A.E. Akingbohungbe, was in charge. Soon after his arrival, the VC was summoned to Abuja to give a report of the incident the day after he returned to campus. On 14 July, his suspension was announced by the Government.'[3]
Several days later, on 18 July 1999, Prof. Roger Makanjuola was appointed vice chancellor and as replacement to Professor Wale Omole. He promised the students of Obafemi Awolowo University he would do everything in his power to bring the perpetrators to justice. Firstly he visited the Commissioner of Police, Mr. J.C. Nwoye, in Osogbo who raised the issue that the university still hadn't officially reported the murders despite what he said had been repeated requests. Prof. Roger Makanjuola summarily wrote and submitted the required paperwork officially reporting the murders.[3]
Prof. Roger Makanjuola gives the following account of what followed: 'A total of 12 individuals were arrested and charged to court over the three weeks following the murders, including Efosa and Ojuagu. Only one of those involved in the March episode was among those arrested. The other eight could not be located. Two of them had obtained their transcripts and resumed their studies in France. The students brought information on the whereabouts of a major suspect, Babatunde Kazeem (Kato), and we provided a vehicle so that the Police could go with the students to the address in Lagos and arrest him.[3]
Kato was a former student who had been “advised to withdraw” from the University as a result of academic failure. He had been apprehended by the Students’ Union in August 1997 when he admitted to being a secret cult member. He was subsequently handed over to the Security Department, but there is no record of what happened after that. We also provided the police with information on three other individuals, “Innocent”, “Yuletide” and “Ogbume.” Nothing came of this, even though we provided Ogbume’s address in Victoria Garden City, Lagos. The arrested persons were charged to the Ile-Ife Magistrate’s court for the murders.[3]
The Judicial Commission of Enquiry was eventually inaugurated in Abuja on 18 October, but did not start work until 24 November, and eventually arrived in the University on Sunday, 28 November. The chairman was Justice Okoi Itam. There were six other members, including Professor Jadesola Akande, an experienced and highly respected academic and university administrator, and Ray Ekpu, the journalist. Ms. Turi Akerele was later deployed as legal counsel to the Commission. A flamboyant but highly capable alumnus, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, led a team representing the students.[3]
The Commission’s report was submitted in February 2000 and was released, along with the Government’s white paper, later that year. The Commission expressed its strong belief that seven named individuals had participated in the killings—Frank Idahosa (Efosa), Didi Yuletide, Kazeem Bello (Kato), and four individuals who were identified only by their nicknames or Christian names—Innocent, Athanasius, “Ochuko”, and “Chunk.” The last was identified as the then head of the Black Axe secret cult. The Commission also recommended the investigation of 16 other individuals, including Emeka Oguaju and the nine involved in the 7 March episode. The Panel criticised the police investigation of the case and recommended that the Inspector-General of Police should set up a special task force to take it over.[3]
the cases against those charged in the Chief Magistrate’s Court for belonging to an illegal organisation eventually came to nothing. However, we were very hopeful of a successful prosecution of the murder cases against Efosa and company. The case in the Osogbo High Court, which commenced on 9 April 2001, wound on. Evidence for the prosecution was taken from a number of students and some other witnesses. There was adjournment after adjournment. In mid-2002, the Judge hearing the case was transferred to Iwo, and the case along with it. There was a further delay while the exhibits were also subsequently taken to Iwo. To the amazement of everyone, the Judge upheld a “No Case” submission by the defence on 5 November 2002. The three accused persons were released and they subsequently disappeared…'[3]
In 2009 it was reported: 'Ten years after the carnage, the relatives and associates of the victims as well as students of OAU are still crying out for justice.'[10]
Perpetrators[edit]
The attack was carried out by members of the Neo Black Movement of Africa aka The Black Axe. A confraternity infesting Nigerian society, particularly the country's universities, and responsible for large amounts of violent crime. Many reports exist of the ill-effects cultism has on Nigerian society. One such report states: '[Cults] have brutally ravaged Nigeria’s 37 state-run institutions. The massacre at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) is only the most recent tragedy. Observers estimate that 150 students have been slain in the last five years, with scores more victimized by rape, assault, extortion, kidnapping, blackmail, torture and arson attack.[2]
Cultists — who often emulate the music and attitudes of American street-gang culture — dominate several campuses with intimidation tactics. Sometimes they employ threats of murder or extortion for seemingly petty ransoms, like an “A” grade or a fraudulently written term paper. Unprotected students, professors and administrators are often forced to surrender whatever grades, goods and privileges that the cultists demand.'[2]
Today, in 2015, the Black Axe is still an ongoing problem. Responsible for the involvement in the murders of at least 200 people in 2014 and partaking other criminal activities around the world such as international smuggling of drugs, extortion, human trafficking and prostitution, counterfeiting of identity documents, cloning of credit cards, cheque fraud, 419 fraud, robbery, rape, murder and are used by politicians as 'hired thugs'. In Italy they have recently been classified as a 'Mafia' organisation.
In addition to those directly responsible, the Black Axe carrying out the attack, there is ongoing concern over the effect or indeed sponsorship by the other entities and individuals possibly involved. In addition to the alleged sponsorship of the attack by Vice Chancellor Professor Wale Omole it is believed that also the government, the police and judiciary were complicit in either motivating the massacre, allowing the favorable environment for the massacre to have happened and for allowing those involved to escape any prosecution.The black axe is recently responsible for the death of 11 people on July 7.
In movies[edit]
Since then, there have been many movies conveying a storyline as the incident. In 2005, a Nollywood movie titled Dugbe Dugbe, written and produced by the famous Yoruba movie star, Bukky Wright was produced. As usual, there was blur speculation about the relationship of the movie to the incident but these was later confirmed with the location (Obafemi Awolowo University), cast and storyline. In the movie, Africa (the prominent victim of the incident) was represented with Ladi who was killed on campus for his activism against cultism.
Jibola, a known cultist who had been jailed upon conviction of committing such offenses in the past was granted clemency and fraudulently made the Students' Union Group president in order to facilitate latter investigations. The Vice-Chancellor alongside another lecturer was accused and convicted of being cultism kingpins, despite their ironic opposition to cultism. An automatic self-conviction of Prof. Omole aiding the incident was made at the movie's last scene.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^'How cultists murdered 5 OAU students in 1999 and nobody got punished'. Pulse Nigeria. 2015-10-02. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
- ^ abcdHank Hyena (2 August 1999). 'When things fall apart'. salon.com. Retrieved 2010-02-07.
- ^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy'Insured By the Mafia'. This Day Live. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
- ^ abcd'Nigeria: July 10 1999 OAU cult attack'. socialistworld.net. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
- ^ abc'OAU students remember colleagues, 14 years after killing'. National Mirror. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
- ^Itamah. 'MYGinfo BLOG: REMEMBER THIS? July 10 1999 Massacre In Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-ife'. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
- ^OMG Tatafo. 'July 10 1999: OAU Massacre, questions unanswered'. OMG Nigeria - Celeb Gists, Nollywood News.
- ^Workers' Alternative. 'Student Union activists killed in Nigeria by neo-fascist death squad: Eyewitness Account'. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
- ^'Student Union activists killed in Nigeria by neo-fascist death squad'. Youth for International Socialism. 28 July 1999. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- ^'Nigeria: July 10 1999 OAU cult attack'. socialistworld.net. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
External links[edit]
- 'Arrests after Nigerian cult killings'. BBC News. 12 July 1999.
- 'Eye witness'. Times Higher Education.
- 'Vice Chancellor at University in Ife (Nigeria) Directly Involved in Murder of Student Activists'. International Marxist Tendency. 16 December 1999.
by G. Martin Moeller, Jr.
There is a spot in Rome along the Via dei Baullari, near the bustling Campo de’ Fiori, from which one can admire a portion of the Palazzo Farnese’s elegant façade, and then, pivoting to the right, catch a glimpse of the gracious courtyard within the Palazzo della Cancelleria. For anyone who knows the National Building Museum very well, this experience offers something of a frisson; for there, visible almost simultaneously, are the two great Renaissance palaces that directly inspired the design of the former Pension Building, the Museum’s historic home.
Guidebooks, architectural historians, and the Museum’s own docents and publications devote a good deal of attention to the Italian Renaissance precedents for our landmark building, and with good reason. Montgomery C. Meigs, the civil engineer and former Union Army general who designed the Pension Building, visited Rome twice—in 1867 and 1876—and was profoundly impressed by the city’s architecture. When he began work on the Pension Building in 1881, Meigs drew heavily on the sketches and notes he had made in Rome, which, by the time of his second visit, had become the new capital of the recently unified Kingdom of Italy. For him, the Palazzo Farnese, the Cancelleria, and other key Roman buildings were models for a dignified yet unpretentious architecture that he felt would be equally appropriate for the American capital.
Given this strong architectural lineage, it might be easy to cast the Pension Building as merely a skillful work of mimicry, but to do so would be a great disservice to Meigs. Although he was inspired by the architectural vocabulary, compositions, and details of specific buildings in Rome, he did not copy them slavishly. In fact, he showed remarkable ingenuity in adapting Renaissance forms to fulfill the practical requirements of the Pension Bureau, respond to broader goals of the federal government, and address specific concerns about the health and well-being of the building’s occupants, all while creating a structure that ultimately seems thoroughly suited to its own city.
The Palazzo Farnese and the Pension Building’s Exterior
The Palazzo Farnese was built in the 16th century as the private palace of Alessandro Farnese, who had been made a cardinal at the age of only 25 and went on to become Pope Paul III. Initially designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, the building was modified by Michelangelo after Alessandro’s succession to the papacy. It now houses the French Embassy to Italy.
A masterpiece of the High Renaissance, the Palazzo Farnese has a perfectly symmetrical main façade, rows of discrete windows with individual pediments, and a heavy cornice providing a definitive cap to the composition. The principal façade is at once elegant, powerful, and restrained—ornament is concentrated around the windows and doors, with a burst of exuberance around the central window on the second floor, courtesy of Michelangelo.
It is easy to see how the Palazzo Farnese influenced the main façade of the Pension Building. Each has three stories separated by bold horizontal bands, an orderly array of punched windows, and a central doorway. The most telling similarity is found at the second story—in both cases, the pediments above the windows alternate between angled and curved forms, providing a rich and distinctive rhythm.
Yet the exteriors of the Pension Building and the Palazzo Farnese differ in several important ways. Perhaps most obvious is the difference in color—the Farnese is an essay in shades of beige, with buff bricks and light-colored stone, while the Museum is clad almost entirely in deep red brick (hence the building’s early, derisive nickname, “Meigs’s Old Red Barn”). Each building is thus characteristic of its region, since Rome is largely a city of cream-colored brick and stone, while red brick has long been one of the most inexpensive and readily available materials in the Washington area.
Because Meigs specified mortar to match the brick on the lower parts of the Pension Building, the structure might appear almost as if it were carved out of a single, enormous block of clay, but for a significant element that was clearly not derived from the Palazzo Farnese at all: the three-foot-tall, ornamental terra cotta frieze that circumscribes the building between the first and second floors. Created by Bohemian-American sculptor Caspar Buberl, this band depicts a continuous parade of Union military personnel from the Civil War. The frieze lends a unique and memorable flourish to the building, saving the dark red façades from dourness and adding a visual narrative that tied the design to the building’s original function, which was to process pensions for Union veterans, widows, and families.
Meigs’s sketches for the Pension Building’s cornice reveal that its basic form was directly based on that of the Palazzo Farnese, detailed drawings of which were accessible in a widely circulated book by Paul Latarouilly depicting Renaissance architecture in Rome. Here again, however, Meigs put his own stamp on the design. In lieu of the decorative acanthus leaves and fleurs-de-lis that lined the Farnese cornice, Meigs used cannons and bursting bombs, further tying the Pension Building to the military origins of the agency for which it was constructed. (A side note: While the contemporary visitor might think that the fleurs-de-lis on the Palazzo Farnese were added after the building came into French hands, in fact the floral symbols were also long-time emblems of the Farnese family, and date to the palace’s early days.)
At a larger scale, Meigs also significantly altered the proportions of the Farnese when adapting the design for the Pension Building. At 400 feet, the north and south façades of the Pension Building are much longer than the main façade of its Roman antecedent. In this regard, the shorter end façades of the Pension Building, as seen from 4th and 5th Streets, are actually closer in proportion to the main façade of the Palazzo Farnese. Another noteworthy difference is the treatment of the corners of the two buildings—the façade of the Farnese is bracketed by stacks of stone quoins, while the Pension Building has none. In fact, the inset columns—again made of brick—that Meigs designed for the corners of the second and third floors of the Pension Building seem to be entirely without precedent.
The most substantial difference between the Pension Building and the Palazzo Farnese involves the overall massing of the two structures. When viewed from the piazza it faces, the Farnese appears as a simple block ending definitively in a robust, perfectly horizontal cornice. The principal block of the Pension Building, by contrast, is crowned by a large, pedimented superstructure. The semicircular-arched windows in this part of the building may suggest the influence of Romanesque architecture—at any rate, the addition of the superstructure certainly makes for an assemblage of forms that would have been unthinkable in Renaissance Rome, and serves as a reminder of Meigs’s independence as a designer.
The Cancelleria and the Great Hall
Not far from the Palazzo Farnese is the Palazzo della Cancelleria, built between about 1486 and 1513 for Cardinal Raffaele Riario, who was camerlengo—a powerful administrative official—under Pope Sixtus IV. If you thought Alessandro Farnese was rather young to become a cardinal at 25, he had nothing on Riario, who was made a cardinal at the age of only 16! He was in his 20s when he commissioned this palace, which was partially financed with the young cardinal’s gambling winnings. Riario was forced to cede the property to the Holy See after he was implicated in a plot to assassinate Pope Leo X. The building was soon assigned to the Apostolic (or Papal) Chancery, whose duties included publishing papal bulls, and hence it became known as the Chancellery, or Cancelleria in Italian. Today, it remains an exclave of the Holy See—legally, it is Vatican territory even though it is physically separate from Vatican City.
The most famous feature of the Cancelleria is its courtyard, notable for its two-tiered arcades, which may have been at least partially designed by Donato Bramante (though that attribution is disputed). Delicate and airy, the arcades contrast with the heavier, rather severe exterior façades. The two arcaded levels are treated almost identically, with simple, non-fluted columns and minimally decorated capitals. At the corners, the round columns are replaced by L-shaped pillars.
It was this courtyard that inspired Meigs’s design for the Great Hall of the Pension Building, though once again there are significant differences between the two spaces. Most obviously, the courtyard of the Cancelleria is open to the sky, while the Pension Building’s Great Hall is roofed. Rome had a long-standing tradition of open courtyards in its urban buildings (the Palazzo Farnese also has one), but the primary reasons for Meigs’s decision to roof the courtyard were pragmatic. First, he intended the space to be usable year-round both for large, official events and as a kind of “banking hall” where Pension Bureau employees could conduct business with their constituents. Perhaps more important, the enclosed hall was an integral component of the innovative system he devised for providing fresh air to the perimeter offices. Air would be drawn in through small openings in the exterior walls (and warmed over radiators when necessary), flow through the large openings facing the courtyard, and be vented out through clerestory windows at the top of the Great Hall by means of a chimney effect. Meigs was extremely proud of the fact that absenteeism due to sickness among Pension Bureau employees declined dramatically after they moved into the building he designed, an achievement that he attributed primarily to his efforts to ensure that they were breathing fresh air.
Meigs also adapted the architectural details of the Cancelleria’s arcades, deciding, for instance, to treat the two levels differently. The columns on the first floor of the Pension Building have Doric capitals, while those of the second floor are Ionic—a common design move, but nonetheless a departure from the direct model in this case. In addition, above the second floor, the walls of the Pension Building’s courtyard are set back from the outer plane of the arcades, providing a greater sense of spaciousness than in the Cancelleria courtyard, where the upper-level walls are flush with the arches below.
Of course, Meigs had to look to other precedents when designing the roof over the large, rectangular Great Hall, since no such structures existed in Renaissance Rome. His solution was a practical one, consisting of iron trusses—rather like those one might find in a late 19th-century train shed—supporting a sloping roof painted light blue to suggest the sky. The resulting atrium-like space is a curious architectural hybrid, in which the Renaissance meets the Victorian era.
Santa Maria degli Angeli and the Colossal Columns
There was a third Roman building that directly influenced Meigs’s design of the Pension Building, though it is often overlooked in discussions of the structure’s origins.Rome boasts a bewildering number of churches, and yet there is no other like Santa Maria degli Angeli. It was built within the ruins of the ancient Roman Baths of Diocletian, very near the present site of Rome’s main train station, Termini (in fact, the name of the station derives not from “terminus,” as many people assume, but from terme, the Italian word for “baths”). The interior was designed beginning in 1561 by none other than Michelangelo, who died in 1564 before it was finished. The project was completed under the guidance of Jacopo Lo Duca, who had been one of Michelangelo’s students, though the interior was later heavily modified during the Baroque period.
Meigs greatly admired the colossal Corinthian columns—some of them original to the Roman baths, some of them replicas—that graced the church’s sanctuary. Over 17 meters (about 56 feet) tall, these columns not only emphasize the height of the space, but also help to define subspaces within the vast interior. These columns were the inspiration for the eight gigantic Corinthian columns that punctuate the Great Hall of the Pension Building. Of course, Meigs had to outdo the Romans, and so he ensured that his versions, at 75 feet tall, were larger than their predecessors. (In fact, he went even further than that, checking the height of the famously impressive columns at the ancient Roman Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek, now in Lebanon, and made sure that the Pension Building’s were bigger.)
Budgetary restrictions prevented the use of actual marble for the columns in the Pension Building, so they were built of brick, plastered, and painted to resemble Siena marble, whose caramel color appealed to Meigs. These eight huge columns do serve a function—they help to support the roof over the Great Hall—but they are also the most memorable architectural elements of the entire building, and the primary reason that the National Building Museum is today one of the most beloved landmarks in Washington.
Nbm Convention
A Unique Work
Names Of Temples In Bible
For all its debt to Renaissance precedents, the Pension Building was an unprecedented work of architecture. Meigs drew inspiration from various structures that were centuries old, yet he created a building that was in many ways at the cutting edge of design theory and construction technology. It is fitting that this building, with its complex history, diverse antecedents, and innovative design, is now home to the world’s only museum dedicated to all aspects of the built environment and the talented people who create it.