10 Most Spectacular Staircases in the World
The
steps of the Toltec-Maya pyramid at Chichen Itza, Mexico are an early example of
the simple, straight-flight staircase - the ancestor of all stair design.
Appearing to stretch up to the sky, this style of staircase came to symbolise an
ascent to heaven and infinity, and has captured artists’ imaginations from the
Odessa Steps in Eisenstein’s film Battleship Potemkin to the steps in Orson
Welles’s The Trial. (All images courtesy of Thames & Hudson from The
Staircase: The Architecture of Ascent by Oscar Tusquets Blanca, Martine Diot,
Adelaïde de Savray, Jérôme Coignard and Jean Dethier.
2. Let there be
light
The
view shown here of the lantern of the chateau of Chambord in the Loire, France,
shows the flat ceiling embellished with coffering. Flanking the large windows
are eight niches intended to hold statues. The chateau marks a high point in the
development of the staircase, illustrating the Renaissance architects’
fascination with the spiral structure around an open
space.
3. Elevated
circles
The
upper part of the helix staircase of the Villa Farnese at Caprarola, Lazio,
built in 1559, makes a grand statement. Architect Jacopo Vignola’s design was a
blend of an Italina palazzo, a villa and a French chateau. The monumental
staircase rises to a third floor and is supported by 30 pairs of Doric, Ionic
and Corinthian columns.
4. High and mighty
The
spirit of the Baroque emerges in the monumental staircase of the Palazzo Canossa
in Mantua, Lombardy, built in the 1600s for the Gonzaga family, who ruled that
part of northern Itlay from the 14th to the 18th Centuries. The figures that
greet the visitor on the landing include two large hounds: dogs were the emblem
of the powerful family.
5. Stairway to heaven
The
elegance of French architecture in the Age of Enlightenment is typified by the
elliptical spiral staircase at the Abbey of Prémontré in the Aisne, built in the
first half of the 17th Century. Architects of the time understood the mystical
mood set by light on stone and tapering shadows on steps.
6. High drama
The
palaces of Germany and Austria show German Baroque at its most dramatic and
rich. At the Würzburg Residenz – commissioned by the city’s powerful dynasty of
prince-bishops– the ceiling is covered in a fresco by Venetian artist
Giambattista Tiepolo depicting the four corners of the earth above the great
staircase.
7. Allusions of grandeur
At
Augustusburg Castle in Brühl, near Cologne, the architect Balthasar Neumann
built one of the most extraordinary of all German Rococo staircases. The
architect, in keeping with the style of the time, was concerned less with the
beauty of the individual materials than with the overall visual effect when they
were brought together, and most of the marble is in fact imitation. No expense
was spared, though, on the trompe-l’oeil paintings, created by the most
outstanding artists of the day.
8. High society
The
austerely elegant staircase at Seaton Delaval Hall in Northumberland in the UK
is inspired by the Palladian style – grandiose but glacial. As in the rest of
Europe, the staircase in Britain became a symbol of prestige and ritual, and in
the British country house it reflected and reinforced the owner’s social status,
success or ambitions to power.
9. Circle of life
The
Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York was Frank Lloyd Wright’s final
masterpiece, completed in 1959. The building’s iconic quality derives from the
spiralling ramp that surrounds the circular atrium, celebrating the movement of
visitors through the museum’s six floors and unifying interior and
exterior.
10. Onwards and upwards
The
innovative Pompidou Centre in Paris was nicknamed the ‘gasworks’, and typified
the fascination with technology of the time. Opened in 1977, it was designed by
Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers who, in a grandiose theatrical gesture, strung
stairways across the full width of the main facade. A functional and geometric
triumph, the main staircase stretched across all six
floors.
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