Texas State Capitol

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At the top of Congress Avenue, which runs from the bridge over the Colorado River and up the hill, stands the Texas State Capitol, home of the Governor of Texas and the State Legislature.  I visited the Capitol in 2014 but this was after the sun had set and the building was lit by floodlighting (CLICK HERE to view the 2014 blog).

 Building started in February 1882 and was completed on the 21 April 1888 - which was the 52nd anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto, where the Texan army defeated the Mexicans and gave Texas its independence in 1836.


The Texas State Capitol is 308 feet / 94m tall making it the sixth tallest State Capitol and taller than the building in Washington.  The building is clad in Red Sunset Granite giving the Texas State Capitol a distinctive red colouration and subsequently many of the buildings in downtown Austin were also constructed using the same red coloured stone.  

 On top of the central dome sits the 'Goddess of Liberty' holding aloft the single star of Texas in her left hand.


This is the third building to serve as the Texas State Capitol and the second on the current site after the previous building, which was built in 1853, was destroyed in a fire in 1881.  The floorspace of the current building extends to 33,000 sq m / 360,000 sq ft and  the grounds measure 22 acres or 8.9 hectares

 In the grounds there are four memorials - Heroes of the Alamo Monument, Terry's Texas Rangers Monument, Confederate Soldiers Monument and Volunteer Firemen Monument - and several cannons dating from the American Civil War and the Texas War of Independence.

I walked up Congress Avenue to photograph the outside of the building in the warm Texas sunshine and then walked down to the bridge crossing the Colorado River to get some shots back up Congress Avenue.  


All of the images were taken on the Fujifilm X-T1 with a 10-24mm f4 or 90mm f2 lens.

 CLICK HERE for more information on the Texas State Capitol









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