CAPITOL BUILDING AND CAPITOL HILL, Capitol Building Interior

The United States Capitol is divided into five floors, one of them underground. Only the first and second floors are accessible to tourists, although it is possible to visit the basement, with the remains of the old public bathrooms, while from the third floor it is only possible to access the gallery to watch the House of Representatives and the Senate at work.

On the ground floor, you can visit the Hall of Columns, the Crypt, the Old Supreme Court Chamber and the Corridors of Costantino Brumidi, the Italo-Greek artist who painted most of the Capitol’s frescoes.

The paintings depict the history of the United States until 1865, the year in which the task was entrusted to Brumidi. The cycle painted by Brumidi was designed so as to leave room for subsequent historical events.

Among the frescoes added later are those depicting Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight, the moon landing and the astronauts killed in the explosion of the Challenger shuttle....