Wisconsin State Capitol

Wow, beautiful stone work inside and great 360* views from the observation deck. Look for the badgers, there are for off them tucked above each main entry. Nice at deco touches on the elevators and restrooms. Check out the trumpeter’s balcony for a closer look at the mosaic meals and done.

This is where I was married. We just love walking through the capital on a spring day after the farmer’s market. The rotunda is grand, but when you take the tour of the building you are in awe! Definitely worth it because you get to learn about the secret observatory dock and see the museum found in the dome :)

What a beautiful building. Not a detail is missed. The marble steps, amazing dome, gilded accents are careful craftsman creations.
Highly recommend stopping by if you find yourself in the area. Tours are available. Plenty of meter parking nearby.

Madison was a pit stop for my road trip and I am glad I decided to check it out. It is near a pretty lake and there are a lot of neat restaurants and coffee shops to check out around the area. Parking wasn’t too hard to find but free parking was rare. However, metered parking was only about $ 1/​hour or so.
Like all state capitol buildings I’ve been to, there were lots of marbled stair cases, big pretty dome, and lots of modeled conference rooms for people of all ages to check out and learn a bit more about our government systems.

We really enjoyed our tour here. Tours are an hour long and with any luck you’ll get to see all of the rooms targeted. Some may not be available depending on usage at the time so we were pleased to get into each. Our tour guide was great. very informative. He also paused for questions in each room. The building itself is as unique as a fingerprint. The stone and materials used to construct the building is as fascinating as it is to look at. The artwork is second to none, you’re better off wandering this building than you are most art galleries. The best part of the tour… it’s FREE. Cheers.

What a fantastic tour! This is SUCH an ornate building, with goldleaf everywhere. The tour took about an hour, which was helpful b/​c alot of the parking nearby, including the spot right outside that I was in, had a one hour limit. Since it was winter, you could not tour the catwalks on the top and near the top of the rotundra, too bad. Marble and marble and more marble, I think it was in the Hearing Room where it was mined from the seabed of the Mediterrainian (sp?) Ocean. Lots of carved ivory scrollwork. Amazing big, heavy, ornate doors.
Wish the tour went into the basement, but as with most tours, sadly, no.
Here’s some startling info: if they built this behemoth today, it would cost over $ 7 BILLION DOLLARS. Maybe should have saved some of their scheckels to fix some cruddy roads in need of resurfacing…
But a great tour, super impressive.

The tours are free and on the hour but was very rushed. We got about 45 minutes through and the tour guide essentially left us on the 2^nd floor and went down to the check-​in. Aside from that, the tour was informative and educational. I would have liked to have seen more of the upper decks.

Wisco has the best state capitol in the country. Take a tour, go to nearby museums, meet with your rep. Suck in the beauty.

We took the tour on a Saturday, the tour guide seemed to be knowledgeable about the building and shared a few hidden treasures.
The official Christmas tree is placed under the dome and is a beautiful site.

I have heard about this Capitol for years and I have always wanted to visit. I visited around Christmas time and it was beautiful at night.
Very beautiful tree and very lighted all around. I would recommend going at night and during the day. I suggest a day visit so you can take a tour and go inside.
Enjoy!

It is free to go inside and walk around with a scary degree of non-​supervision. The exterior design and grounds are very nice, but the interior is absolutely spectacular. There is a Byzantine cathedral quality to its central dome and pendentives with brightly colored mosaics. A tremendous example of Beaux-​Arts architecture. Don’t miss!

Great and free place to visit. You pretty much have free reign of the place when you go in, despite there being no security checks. You also have the free observation deck at the top, in the dome, which offers great views of downtown and the lakes. Again, all free!
Also the best place to use the bathroom during downtown events!

Beautiful outside and in. Since moving back downtown I see the Capitol nearly every day and often take a quick walk through it to cut across the square. I can’t help but gaze up at the dome while I approach it, and love the experience of the lower level seeming to stay in place as the dome looms closer and closer like the camera pull you see in suspense films.
The grounds around the building are well kept — an expansive green lawn, fountains, statues, and flowers adorn the walkways. The real treat for me, though, is inside. The hallways leading toward the rotunda are dim, but that just makes the reveal even more stunning.
When you get to the center of the building, look up. Beautiful mosaics and paintings cover every surface, and the gaze up is dizzying. Natural light makes everything sparkle, and I often fight the urge to just lay down in the middle of the floor and just spend a solid ten minutes looking at everything around me.
The Capitol tour is fun and informative, and if the weather permits I recommend going up to the small museum area and walking around outside on the observation deck. The very top of the dome is not open to visitors, but every now and then you’ll see someone up there doing maintenance and get jealous you don’t get to go out, too.

the capitol is a beautiful building on its own, but it wins extra points for strong air-​conditioning in summer and the well-​preserved condition of its interior.
if you navigate the convoluted wings accurately, you may end up at the stairs to the lock-​out atrium on the top of the building, with a clear view over madison and its surrounding waters.
the golden beavers at the top if the doorways standing watch are also plenty picture-​worthy — it’s definitely not an animal you’d expect with this gilded grandeur, but it IS the state animal.

Ever been to Madison? Well if you have then you can’t miss the center piece of the city. It is a beautiful place. Truly gives light to the city. I have had the pleasure of coming here a few times and I still marvel at it’s beauty. They have concerts here occasionally that are peaceful, fun, lively, BYOB, with tons of restaurants surrounding it.
Enjoy the pics and if you ever venture out to Madison make sure you take a stroll around this for its beauty and all that the surrounding places have to offer.
Great good, great times, and great scenry!
What else do you need?

I remember when i was little kid and went to the Capitol building for a field trip. I was in aww othe the majesty of the building. Now when I’m older I’m still humbled by it.
This a great place for a weekend day, especially in the summer. There are so many events around the Capitol from the farmers market to the art fair. It is definitely the center of the city.
Take a tour of this glorious building from top to bottom plus after if you’re hungry the Capitol square provides many dinning options no more than a couple steps away.

I have a thing for touring state capitols; I’m not sure why, but here is my experience. In summary, this capitol provided the most access out of any I have toured and the guide was exceptional. (At the present moment, pending future state capitol tours, I would rank my tour of the California capitol in San Francisco #2 and Nashville, Tennessee as #3 — if you were wondering).
The website notes that the building is open to the public weekdays from 8a to 6p. It also lists hours on the weekends and on holidays, yes weekends and holidays, from 8a to 4p which is great, but rare as far as capitols go. You can walk through on your own, but free tours start at the information desk Monday to Saturday, except on holidays, at 9a, 10a, 11a, 1p, 2p, 3p, and in the summer at 4p and Sundays at 1p, 2p, and 3p. That’s more guided tours a day than any other capitol I’ve ever toured!
The website says tours take 45 – 55 minutes. You can explore the sixth floor museum and observation deck if it is summer before or after the tour on your own. The tour is accessible (lifts available), but the observation deck is not. Truly you are not missing too much if you cannot go to the 6^th floor and deck. The tour is super informative and the museum is only a small supplement of readable exhibits ringing the upper rotunda. The observation deck is nice as its a rare opportunity and nice to get outside, but the deck is not super high and the view, despite there being no skyscrapers in sight, is limited.
I took the 11a tour on a Monday and the group ended up being about 30 people large! Our guide was just amazing. I don’t remember her name — but the guide was female, short blond hair. She was so energetic and kept the large group engaged.
When I say the WSC allows for great access, first of all there are no metal detectors or security screening upon entry. This immediately caught me off guard because I entered through a side door I wasn’t sure if I supposed to enter through — but it was okay. By great access I also mean that the guide takes you into the governor’s conference room and you get to sit down. You go into the Supreme Court room and can sit in the public gallery, but in the Senate you can actually sit in the Senators’ seats. You can take (flash) photography anywhere you want. All in all you really feel welcomed in the capitol and like it truly is your house and not like you are just tiptoeing throughout.
The information provided on the tour was interesting as well. The guide was super informative about things you wouldn’t notice or know to look for if just walking through on your own and she took lots of questions and had answers and stories for everyone. She was even great with the questioning kids in our group.
I highly recommend taking this hour tour if you are in the city really whether you are a local (we had several on our tour) or not.

I may have been here as a little kid on a school field trip, but I don’t remember, so I’m counting this as my first visit.
Being from Milwaukee, I was expecting a rather drab, monochromatic marble building like our county courthouse. I was dead wrong! The interior is beautiful and colorful. The sun shining in, lighting up the different murals was stunning. Describing this place is impossible. A picture is actually worth a thousand words in the case of this building. I hope to come back someday for the free tour and for the farmers market on the square.
²⁹⁄₂₀₁₅

Five stars for the building itself. Zero stars for the current state government, but the building itself is gorgeous.
I took my new ladyfriend here a few days ago and gave her a little tour. Despite growing up one county away she had never been. I’ve been on the formal tour before and I’d definitely recommend it but we were under a bit of a time crunch (yeah, not ideal, but coming here at all was more or less a way to kill time as we waited for someone to arrive) so I ended up playing the role of tour guide.
Wisconsin is really neat in that our State Capitol serves many roles: seat of government, a community gathering space, a city center, and a place for citizens to give voice to their grievances. It’s among the most «open» of the states’ capitols – and that’s very much a positive thing. This building and it’s grounds are very much a commons, both in the philosophical sense and a literal one.
I could wax romantic about my time in 2011 spent here in opposition to the radical redirection of state government. Those memories are some of my best and my proudest, no matter how completely Wisconsin has abandoned it’s progressive traditions. This building brought people together that year, and I met people who I’ve remained friends with to this day.
A five star State Capitol, snake infestation or not.

I was visiting Madison, and my friend recommended the Wisconsin State Capitol. Having been to the capitol in WA and MI states, I was reluctant to go, because aren’t capitols just government buildings? And, aren’t government buildings rented/​leased from private companies?
Anyway, I tagged along and I was surprised at this state capitol. The sheer amount of time and effort that was dedicated to planning the original, and then post-​fire renovation, is clear. This is a state capitol to be proud of. There is a dome, and the exterior is decorated with statues while the interior is beautiful paintings. There’s even gold leaf. I felt like I was at a museum.
I highly recommend touring the capitol if you’re in the capitol square. In the winter, there are less tourists and you can lie on your back and take close-​ups of the interior of the dome.