Since 1918 the meetings of the National and Federal Parliament have been held in these impressive buildings. Measuring 137 m (450 ft) wide and 145 m (475 ft) long, they had been built between 1873 and 1883 by Theophil Hansen for the Imperial and Provincial delegacies which had been called into being by the 1861 Declaration and survived until 1918. it was in allusion to Greece, the birthplace of democracy, that he chose Greek forms for the building, with Corinthian columns and rich decoration on the metopes and pediments. The carvings in the pediment above the portico depict the granting of the Constitution by Franz Joseph I to the 17 peoples of Austria, while the attica is decorated with 76 marble statues and 66 reliefs.