This is the best place to start exploring Melbourne, with a surrealistic building in the square that completely breaks visitors' initial impression of Melbourne's classical style.
Federation Square is one of Victoria's most sophisticated and massive construction projects, incorporating state-of-the-art avant-garde architectural design. Covering the entire inner city precinct, Federation Square connects the central business district to the river in the heart of Melbourne, combining arts, events, leisure, sightseeing and open spaces. Ian Potter Centre is also located here in Federation Square, home to the National Gallery of Victoria, the world's first public **** museum dedicated to Australian art.
Opened in October 2002, Federation Square is Australia's largest project in recent years, costing $450 million and accommodating 10,000 people. Around 500 events are held in Federation Square each year, and Melbourne residents who could not accept the square have gradually come to love it and be proud of it.
Everyone's love of Federation Square is due to the abstract and quirky buildings that surround it, including the Visitor Center, the new National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), the Indoor Performance Hall (in the BMW Edge), the SBS Media Building, the Transport Hotel, art galleries, and restaurants and stores. The Atrium in particular is a striking building with its geometric steel and clear glass facade. It connects Flinders Street to the Yarra River and is cut through by Crossbar, a restaurant and café building. The high ceilings and clear glass not only allow the outside light to shine through, but also blend in with the neighboring classical architecture, successfully illustrating the contrasting concepts of 'traditional and modern' and 'ancient and creative'.
St. Paul's Church
This Anglican cathedral is located at the intersection of Flinders Street and Swanston Street. The church joins St. Patrick's Cathedral on Government Office Street, and St. John's Anglican Church in South Yarra as Melbourne's top three Gothic buildings.
St. Paul's Cathedral was built in 1866, replacing a much smaller church with the same name on the same site.
The construction of the church was hampered by difficulties and controversy between the English architect William Butterfield and the church's building committee, who were disdainful of the committee's idea of the church facing Noble's Bridge and the choice of stone. Construction of the church began in 1880, but Butterfield officially resigned in 1884. The final work was overseen by architect Joseph Reed.
The interior of the church has a number of unique features, including a custom-made altarpiece in Italy, marble and striated marble inlaid with glass, and an organ made by Lewis and his collaborators in London. The church also contains a set of chimes consisting of 13 small bells, a rare find outside the British Isles.
Lapis lazuli is the main building material of this Gothic cathedral, and interior stained glass windows, glazed burnished floor tiles, and wooden fittings adorn St. Paul's Cathedral with a stately elegance.
St. Paul's Church is free and open to the public, and the doors of the church are very dignified. Into St. Paul's Church, the interior lighting is relatively dim, there is a majestic sense of gloom, the church in space seems relatively empty, the roof is very tall, beautiful stained glass with a clear Western flavor, giving people the feeling that the time is reversed to ancient Europe, solemn and grand.
Victoria Arts Centre
If you look out across the Yarra River from Federation Square, daylight will immediately be attracted to a tutu-shaped spire, which is home to the Victoria Arts Center, a famous Melbourne landmark.
Open for more than 20 years, the arts center, designed by architect Roygrounds, has been providing Melbourne residents with a rich artistic feast. Large-scale concerts, theater and dance are regularly staged here. The Arts Center I*** is divided into three parts, one is the theater under the 162-meter high spire; one is the Melbourne Concert Hall; and the other part is the National Gallery of Victoria.
The Theatre Under the Spire, built on St Kilda Road, is a six-storey building with five underground floors and three performance halls, the largest of which, the State Theatre, has a capacity of 2,067 and is mainly used as a venue for operas, ballets and musicals, and the Play House, which has a capacity of 800 and is designed mainly for theater performances. There are also Aboriginal art exhibits in the lounge; and the smallest, an experimental theater (the George Fairfax Studio), seats 350-450 and is a multi-purpose performance studio.
To fully appreciate the luxurious design of the theater, you can learn more about the facilities that meet the standards of a "good theater" through the staff's explanations, and even if you can't get in to see a performance, you can still take this opportunity to have a good look around. In addition, the arts center also opened a backstage dressing room for visitors to visit, where visitors can wear a variety of costumes to take photos, and live the star addiction.
Construction of the multi-purpose performing arts center began in 1973, and the first performance was held in 1984. Not only does it attract world-class artists, theater companies, opera and ballet dancers, but it is also a major gathering point for social and cultural events in Melbourne.
For a tourist, the Arts Center is the best place to get a sense of Melbourne's artistic temperament. The gallery is an oriental building, with a spring running along the entire glass wall of the main entrance, guarded by a huge statue known as the "Angel". The "angel" does not have wings, but rather resembles a small three-legged, two-headed beast. Splashes of color, totemic patterns, perhaps this is the artist's fantasy of the angel. The tower of the theater building is in the shape of a tutu, and at night the tutu flies out of the brightest lights on the banks of the Yarra River. The theater is all underground, small and chic. The baseboards of the Small Theatre are earthy silver and the chairs are peach; the carpet of the Medium Theatre is dark purple and the chairs are bronze; and the seats of the Grand Theatre are all bright red, the traditional color used in British opera houses. The ceiling of the amphitheater is made of 7,500 reflective mirrors, and when the lights are turned on, the reflected light is like the Milky Way pouring out of the sky. The Melbourne Concert Hall's sound is one of the best in Australia. The stage is on the lowest level, as deep as the bed of the Yarra River. 2,677 seat covers are made of sound-absorbing pure wool. The walls are all buffalo hide. Each side block was made from the hide of one buffalo. More than 1,000 buffalo were used in one ****. Wool sound-absorbing carpet near the stage with 30 sound effect discs. The height of the suspension was changed according to the music played. Concert hall ceiling and baseboards are carefully outlined by landscape painters depicting sand, coral blue, gray and light purple, these four color schemes represent the colors of the Australian earth. The audience is placed in the concert hall as if they were on a sloping mound of earth at the entrance to a cave. Enjoying the symphony in such a "natural" environment is the brainchild of Melbourne people, and this perfect fusion of nature and humanity is precisely the charm of Melbourne.
Every year, about 1.2 million people come from all over the world to enjoy the performances. The Arts Center's restaurants also offer a wide range of delicious food and drink. Along the banks of the Yarra River, there are many outdoor cafes and stores where you can enjoy a cup of coffee and a stroll. In the evening, the Victorian Arts Center lights up the Melbourne night sky like a string of pearls set in the city's night scene.
Royal Botanic Gardens
Royal Botanic Gardens of Melbourne was built in 1845, about 40 hectares, the design of the nineteenth-century garden style, still retains some of the last century's architecture and style, the garden planted in the flowers and trees are rare and exotic treasures and Australian local plants, from all over the world, a collection of more than 12,000 types of more than 30,000 kinds of plants and flowers. In addition to all Australian native plants and flowers, more than 20,000 kinds of exotic plants have been cultivated.
Since its opening in 1845, the Botanic Gardens have collected plants from all over the world and gradually expanded to the size you see today. It is one of the best designed botanical gardens in the world.
One of the features of the Botanic Gardens is that there are many commemorative trees planted by famous Australian and foreign historical figures: such as British detective novelist Conan Doyle, Victorian Governor-General Latrobe, Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert, Australia's famous opera singer Nellie Melba, the Polish pianist Paderewski, the British Admiral Jellicoe, the British former Prime Minister Macmillan, the Canadian former Prime Minister Derek Dee, the Australian Botanic Gardens, the Australian Botanic Gardens and the Botanic Gardens. Macmillan, former Canadian Prime Minister Diefenbaker, the Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, King Bhumibol of Thailand and many more.
The Botanic Gardens is home to a tree known in Victoria's history as the Separation Tree. 1851 was an inspiring year for Victorians, with the discovery of gold in Victoria and the granting of a separate colony to the British Territory of Britain, which had been part of the colony of New South Wales. To commemorate this historic event, the Governor of the colony of Victoria planted this eucalyptus tree in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, and this red eucalyptus tree (Eucalyptus spp.) survives to this day, having witnessed the development of the city.
Rialto Tower
Rialto Tower is Melbourne's most iconic building and the tallest office building in the southern hemisphere. 253 meters high, this commercial tower is the 21st tallest in the world. 55 floors of the Observation Deck offer stunning views, and a visit to Melbourne is a must for a 360-degree panoramic view of the beautiful city, 60 kilometers above the horizon. This is the place to see Melbourne's beautiful city, 60 kilometers above the horizon, from a 360 degree bird's eye view. This is the ideal place to see the other side of Melbourne, "the world's most vibrant city". Looking out, you can see not only the skyscrapers of Melbourne's city center, but also the Indian Ocean in the distance, as well as the new development to the west of the city.
Built in 1986 by Australian land developer Bruno Goriello, the 55th-floor observation deck opened in 1994 and now attracts 1,500 visitors a day for panoramic views of the city. The Observatory shows a 20-minute movie every half hour to introduce visitors to the city of Melbourne.