TOWN HALL AND MAIN SQUARE OF LESAKA
Prix Européen d'Architecture Philippe Rotthier pour la Reconstruction de la Ville 1987
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The beautiful late-Baroque Town Hall presides over the Main Square of Lesaka, its most significant urban space. It follows the traditional Basque type: double-bay palace with arched portico in the ground floor. Splendidly conserved on its façades and roof structure, the rest of the building was considerably altered through time and its central staircase displaced.
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Attentive to everything the building, on its discortantia partium,was telling we attempted a restoration devoted to recover the original type, reconstructing missing parts of existing walls, eliminating recent partitions and, above all, building a new staircase on its original position.
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The staircase, main feature of the building, synthesizes an Italianate courtyard and the staircase itself, both covered by a vault. The traditional and beautiful attic, gambara in Basque, becomes a public library. Apart from the restoration and conservation of the building, a new set of lamps and wooden furniture is designed to preserve the dignity and visual continuity between the rooms and their coffered ceilings. Special attention is paid to the Council Chamber with its rococo quire.
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For the restoration of the Main Square, the central triangular platform is covered with impressive stone orthostates, a new stone pavement and semi-circular flight of stairs on each corner. A new wooden kiosk for musical performances is built on a stone base.
