Peace Tower

Peace Tower
Canada
Main facade of Peace Tower, 2012
For Victory and Peace: a memorial to Canadians who had given their lives during the Great War
Unveiled	1927
Location	Canadian parliament buildings near Ottawa, Ontario
Designed by	Jean Omer Marchand and John A. Pearson

Coordinates: 45°25′30″N 75°42′00″W / 45.4249°N 75.6999°W / 45.4249; -75.6999

The Peace Tower (in French: Tour de Paix), also known as the Tower of Victory and Peace (in French: tour de Victoire et de Paix), is a focal bell and clock tower sitting on the central axis of the Centre Block of the Canadian parliament buildings in Ottawa, Ontario. The present incarnation replaced the 55-metre (180 ft) Victoria Tower after the latter burned down in 1916, along with most of the Centre Block; only the Library of Parliament survived. It serves as a Canadian icon and had been featured prominently on the Canadian twenty-dollar bill directly adjacent the queen's visage, until the change to polymer.

Designed by Jean Omer Marchand and John A. Pearson, the tower is a campanile whose height reaches 92.2 m (302 ft 6 in), over which are arranged a multitude of stone carvings, including approximately 370 gargoyles, grotesques, and friezes, keeping with the Victorian High Gothic style of the rest of the parliamentary complex. The walls are of Nepean sandstone and the roof is of reinforced concrete covered with copper.