Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Architecture
Architects working in Italy have always celebrated the classical. The Greeks, who estab-
lished the style, employed it in the southern cities they colonised; the Romans refined and
embellished it; Italian Renaissance architects rediscovered and tweaked it; and the Fascist
architects of the 1930s referenced it in their powerful modernist buildings. Even today, ar-
chitects such as Richard Meier are designing buildings in Italy that clearly reference clas-
sical prototypes. Why muck around with a formula that works, particularly when it can also
please the eye and make the soul soar?
TOP FIVE ARCHITECTS
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Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446)
Brunelleschi blazed the neoclassical trail; his dome for Florence's
Duomo announcing the Renaissance's arrival.
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Donato Bramante (1444-1514)
After a stint as court architect in Milan, Bramante went on to design
the tiny Tempietto and huge St Peter's Basilica in Rome.
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Michelangelo (1475-1564)
Architecture was but one of the many strings in this great man's bow; his
masterworks are the dome of St Peter's Basilica and the Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome.
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Andrea Palladio (1508-80)
Western architecture's single-most influential figure, Palladio turned
classical Roman principles into elegant northern Italian villas.
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Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680)
The king of the Italian baroque is best known for his work in
Rome, including the magnificent baldachin, piazza and colonnades at St Peter's.
Classical
Only one word describes the buildings of ancient Italy: monumental. The Romans built an
empire the size of which had never before been seen and went on to adorn it with buildings
cut from the same pattern. From Verona's Roman Arena to Pozzuoli's Anfiteatro Flavio, gi-
ant stadiums rose above skylines. Spa centres like Rome's Terme di Caracalla were verit-
able cities of indulgence, boasting everything from giant marble-clad pools to gymnasiums
and libraries. Aqueducts like those below Naples provided fresh water to thousands, while
temples such as Pompeii's Tempio di Apollo provided the faithful with awe-inspiring
centres of worship.
Having learned a few valuable lessons from the Greeks, the Romans refined architecture
to such a degree that their building techniques, designs and mastery of harmonious propor-
tion underpin most of the world's architecture and urban design to this day.
