la martini ere (ppt.)

8/8/2019 La Martini Ere (Ppt.)

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La Martiniere ³labor et Constantia´



La Martiniere Architecture

The finest and the largest example of European funerary monument in the subcontinent, La Martiniere is one of Lucknow's most distinctive architectural

survivals.

Adopting the salient features of Italian Architecture and blending them with

the indigenous Muslim styles, Claude Martin himself designed the building.

This was perhaps the first building of the European Order to be built in

Northern India.

Described by one observer as a product of "the heterogeneous fancies of a

diseased brain", La Martiniere is an eclectic mishmash of architectural styles

and flavors. Startled looking lions sling to the colonnades while a sprightly collection of classical figurines congregate on the rooftop waving and pointing

frantically at each other. A large turbaned turret completes the look.



Due to immense legal wrangles in the Calcutta High Court,

Claude Martin·s will was not finally proved until 1840.

Before that the Constantia building was used as a guest

house for visiting Europeans. Constantia, was designed and

built by Martin himself as his country residence. This

building, constructed in an extraordinary mixture of styles, is striking and impressive. The site chosen is a lovely park

which may excite the envy of any educational institution in

the world. It stands on an artificial terrace over-looking

what was once a lake; from the centre of which rises a solid fluted column with a Moorish cupola ¶the Laat·

approximately 125 feet high. Over the years, the Gomti river

has edged closer, necessitating the building of a river bund

between the front terrace and ¶the Laat·.



There is probably no other building in Lucknow that exerts such a fascination over the viewer than the Constantia building which is the central portion of the main building at the La Martiniere Boys College. Built by the 18th century French adventurer Claude Martin ,it has withstood the ravages of time and its walls have witnessed death, destruction, earthquakes, floods, love, hope and tears.Through its hallowed portals have passed generations of students and staff who have all contributed to the legend that is ¶the

Martiniere. The rooms in Constantia are decorated profusely in arabesques, bas reliefs and other ornamental works in the Italian style, many of them of great beauty. The external architecture is profusely crowned with casts of figures after the antique, and some in more modern fashion. The curved wings were added afterwards in

accordance with Martin·s instructions. The famous 18th century potter Josiah Wedgewood was responsible for the plaster of Paris plaques decorating the library and chapel. The plaques depict classical and mythological subjects.

la martini ere (ppt.)

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