Four Courts

This imposing courthouse on the quays is the principal seat of the Irish judiciary and another masterwork by architect James Gandon. Completed around 1802, its long riverside frontage is dominated by a great central drum and shallow dome supporting a group of allegorical statues. The building was seized and shelled during the Civil War in 1922, when an explosion destroyed the adjoining Public Record Office and centuries of archives. Rebuilt afterward, it remains a working legal centre and a defining feature of the Dublin skyline.