City Hall

“Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.” – Victor Hugo

Typically, when I visit somewhere new, I research and ask around about where we should visit. When I researched what we should check out when we visited Belfast, Northern Ireland, I was surprised when everyone pointed to City Hall. I don’t know about you, but when I visit somewhere, the last place I think about visiting is City Hall. In fact, I have lived in Charlotte for over 14 years, and I haven’t visited City Hall one time. However, when we talked to the people at the cruise port, they all recommended City Hall. So we paid for a bus to take us to downtown Belfast. When we got there, we saw the outside of City Hall; they were having a ceremony. July 1 in Belfast is an official Day of Remembrance marking the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. It commemorates the tens of thousands of British Army casualties who lost their lives on the first day of the battle in 1916. We couldn’t enter City Hall for a while because of the ceremony, so we walked around downtown until it was open.

After we walked around downtown for a while, we were finally able to enter City Hall. Once we got inside, we saw why it was considered somewhere to see. The inside was beautiful. The interior has a number of notable features including the Porte-Cochère and Grand Entrance, the Grand Staircase, the Reception Room, and the Banqueting Hall. Carrara, Pavonazzo, and Brescia marbles are used extensively throughout the building, as are stained glass windows featuring, among others, the Belfast coat of arms, portraits of Queen Victoria and William III, and shields of the provinces of Ireland. The inside of it was amazing. Here are a few shots I captured of the inside of City Hall. I used my GoPro while walking around Belfast because there was some rain in the area, and I didn’t want to risk getting my camera wet. My GoPro did a good job capturing the details and colors of the stained glass.