GOVERNMENTAL ARCHITECTURE, as discussed in this article, comprises those buildings whose function has definite relation to governmental purposes, such as town halls, State or provincial capitols, court-houses and parliament buildings.
The ancestry of governmental buildings can be traced back to three different sources—the temple, the royal residence and the communistic dwelling—according as the governmental structure was theocratic, autocratic or democratic and communistic. At times, where the king was also priest, or the primitive com munism hedged around with religious taboos, the three types overlap. Thus, among some savage peoples, notably in the Melanesian islands, there are houses reserved for the use of the men, which are combined temples and meeting-houses, and with out doubt, served the purpose of council chambers. In such autocratic civilizations as that of Egypt, on the other hand, gov ernmental functions were centred in the royal palace, which had halls of audience and courts where the king and his councillors could meet, and where executive orders and judicial decisions could be rendered. The great columned halls of the Persian pal aces at Susa and Persepolis (6th and 5th centuries B.e. ), and the palace of Solomon at Jerusalem, especially the "House of the f or est of Lebanon" (I Kings vii. 2) were built, obviously, for official rather than residential use.
Primitive developments of the communistic idea are f o u n d among the tribes of the American Indians. Thus according to John Bartram (Observations on his Travels . . . in 1743, 1751) the Onandaga council house was 8o f t. long and 17 f t. wide. Among the town-dwelling Indians of the south-west, the relation between religion and government seems more strong, as those Pueblo and pre-Pueblo round rooms known as kivas or estufas, occasionally built under ground, were used both for secret rites and for council meetings. These estufas vary in diameter from 18 to 6o ft.; they had flat roofs and were entered only from above.
The growing complexity of governmental systems in the inde pendent cities of historic Greece necessitated special governmental buildings. At first, merely subdivisions of an open space or agora (q.v.), these later became well-articulated structures, usually placed near the agora. The most important was the bouleuterion (q.v.) or council hall, in which were centred the legislative and executive functions. Near by stood the prytaneum (q.v.) which has no modern analogue. It was the official centre of the State as a unit; there the city hearth fire continually burned, ban quets were held, and the com manding general had his official residence. Courts, usually held in colonnades or stoas, were occasionally convened in open areas reserved for them, such as the Areopagos at Athens. At Priene and Miletus extensive remains of the bouleuterion exist, which show a building nearly square with seats rising up in stages on three sides. In that at Miletus they are curved like the seats of an ancient theatre. At Megalopolis there is a much larger hall (late 4th century B.C.) known as the Thersilion, built for the meeting of a large governmental council. This building, a rectangle 220 ft. long, by 172 ft. wide, had a roof supported on columns placed be hind each other in radiating lines, so as to give the widest possible view of the centre of the hall where the speakers stood. In Olympia, the bouleuterion is a more complex structure consisting of a square central hall, the council chamber proper, with an apse-ended build ing on each side, divided by ranges of columns down the centre.
Two forms of pyrtaneum existed. The primitive form was cir cular in plan, and of tholos or bee-hive shape, thus long pre serving the tradition of old hut forms. Existing remains of prytanea are, however, of a more developed sort, in which the tradition of the megaron or great hall of the Mycenean pal ace is recognizable. In Priene, the resemblance to the typical Greek house is particularly strong ; at Olympia, the hearth fire is in a hall at the front with a large court at the rear, smaller courts at each side, and halls for banquets. (See GREEK ARCHI