Architecture of Italy - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, often called Italian architecture refers to all forms of this art in Italy. Italy has a very broad and diverse architectural style, which cannot be simply classified by period, but also by region, due to Italy's division into several city-states until 1861. However, this has created a highly diverse and eclectic range in architectural designs. Italy is known for its considerable architectural achievements, such as the construction of arches, domes and similar structure during ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

, the founding of the Renaissance architectural movement

Renaissance architecture

Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...

in the late-14th to 16th century, and being the homeland of Palladianism, a style of construction which inspired movements such as that of Neoclassical architecture

Neoclassical architecture

Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...

, and influenced the designs which noblemen built their country houses all over the world, notably in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

and the United States of America during the late-17th to early 20th centuries. Several of the finest works in Western architecture, such as the Colosseum

Colosseum

The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...

, the Duomo of Milan

Duomo di Milano

Milan Cathedral is the cathedral church of Milan, Italy. Dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente , it is the seat of the Archbishop of Milan, currently Cardinal Angelo Scola....

, Florence cathedral and the building designs of Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

are found in Italy. Italy has an estimated total of 100,000 monuments of all varieties (museums, palaces, buildings, statues, churches, art galleries, villas, fountains, historic houses and archaeological remains).

Italian architecture has also widely influenced the architecture of the world. Italianate architecture

Italianate architecture

The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...

, popular abroad from the 16th to mid-20th century, was used to describe foreign architecture which was built in an Italian style. British architect Inigo Jones

Inigo Jones

Inigo Jones is the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England...

, inspired by the avant-garde designs of Italian buildings and cities, in the early-17th century, brought back these ideas with him to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, and ever since, this Italianate architecture has been popular in construction designs all over the world.

Ancient Greece and the Etruscans

Along with pre-historic architecture, the first people in Italy to truly begin a sequence of designs were the Greeks like men and the Etruscans. In Northern and Central Italy, it was the Etruscans who led the way in architecture in that time. Etruscan buildings were made from brick and wood, thus few Etruscan architectural sites are now in evidence in Italy, with the exception of a few in Volterra

Volterra

Volterra, known to the ancient Etruscans as Velathri, to the Romans as Volaterrae, is a town and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy.-History:...

, Tuscany

Tuscany

Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

. The Etruscans strongly influenced Roman architecture, as they too used to build temples, fora, public streets and acqueducts. The heavy pillars and porches created by the Etruscans, and their city gates were also a significant influence on Roman architecture.

In Southern Italy, from the 8th century BC, the Greek colonists who created what was known as Magna Graecia

Magna Graecia

Magna Græcia is the name of the coastal areas of Southern Italy on the Tarentine Gulf that were extensively colonized by Greek settlers; particularly the Achaean colonies of Tarentum, Crotone, and Sybaris, but also, more loosely, the cities of Cumae and Neapolis to the north...

used to build their buildings in their own style. The Greeks built bigger, better and more technologically advanced houses that people in the Iron and Bronze Age, and also influenced Roman architecture too. Yet, by the 4th century BC, the Hellenistic Age, less concentration was put on constructing temples, more rather the Greeks spent more time building theatres. The theatres were semi-circular and had an auditorium and a stage. They used to be built only on hills, unlike the Romans who would artificially construct the audience's seats. The Greek temples were known for containing bulky stone or marble pillars. Today, there are several remains of Greek architecture in Italy, notably in Calabria, Apulia and Sicily. An example could be the remains of Agrigento

Agrigento

Agrigento , is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy, and capital of the province of Agrigento. It is renowned as the site of the ancient Greek city of Akragas , one of the leading cities of Magna Graecia during the golden...

, Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

, which are currently UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

World Heritage Site

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...

Ancient Rome

The Architecture of Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

adopted the external Greek architecture around second century B.C. for their own purposes, creating a new architectural

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

style. The two styles are often considered one body of classical architecture

Classical architecture

Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...

. This approach is considered reproductive, and sometimes it hinders scholars' understanding and ability to judge Roman buildings by Greek standards, particularly when relying solely on external appearances. The Romans absorbed Greek influence, apparent in many aspects closely related to architecture; for example, this can be seen in the introduction and use of the Triclinium

Triclinium

A triclinium is a formal dining room in a Roman building. The word is adopted from the Greek τρικλίνιον, triklinion, from τρι-, tri-, "three", and κλίνη, klinē, a sort of "couch" or rather chaise longue...

in Roman villas as a place and manner of dining. The Romans, similarly, were indebted to their Etruscan

Etruscan civilization

Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci...

neighbors and forefathers who supplied them with a wealth of knowledge essential for future architectural solutions, such as hydraulics

Hydraulics

Hydraulics is a topic in applied science and engineering dealing with the mechanical properties of liquids. Fluid mechanics provides the theoretical foundation for hydraulics, which focuses on the engineering uses of fluid properties. In fluid power, hydraulics is used for the generation, control,...

and in the construction of arches.

Social elements such as wealth and high population densities in cities forced the ancient Romans to discover new (architectural) solutions of their own. The use of vaults

Vault (architecture)

A Vault is an architectural term for an arched form used to provide a space with a ceiling or roof. The parts of a vault exert lateral thrust that require a counter resistance. When vaults are built underground, the ground gives all the resistance required...

and arches

Arch (disambiguation)

An arch is a curved structure capable of spanning a space while supporting significant weight. It may also refer to the act of arching, or curving, an object such as the human back.Arch may also refer to:*Gateway Arch, an iconic monument in St...

together with a sound knowledge of building materials, for example, enabled them to achieve unprecedented successes in the construction of imposing structures for public use. Examples include the aqueducts of Rome

Aqueducts of Rome

This is a list of aqueducts in Rome listed in chronological order of their construction.- Ancient Rome :* Aqua Appia** built in 312 BC** source: springs to the east of Rome...

, the Baths of Diocletian

Baths of Diocletian

The Baths of Diocletian in Rome were the grandest of the public baths, or thermae built by successive emperors. Diocletian's Baths, dedicated in 306, were the largest and most sumptuous of the imperial baths. The baths were built between the years 298 AD and 306 AD...

and the Baths of Caracalla

Baths of Caracalla

The Baths of Caracalla in Rome, Italy were Roman public baths, or thermae, built in Rome between AD 212 and 216, during the reign of the Emperor Caracalla.- History :...

, the basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

s and perhaps most famously of all, the Colosseum

Colosseum

The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...

. They were reproduced at smaller scale in most important towns and cities in the Empire. Some surviving structures are almost complete, such as the town walls of Lugo

Lugo

Lugo is a city in northwestern Spain, in the autonomous community of Galicia. It is the capital of the province of Lugo. The municipality had a population of 97,635 in 2010, which makes is the fourth most populated city in Galicia.-Population:...

in Hispania Tarraconensis

Hispania Tarraconensis

Hispania Tarraconensis was one of three Roman provinces in Hispania. It encompassed much of the Mediterranean coast of Spain along with the central plateau. Southern Spain, the region now called Andalusia, was the province of Hispania Baetica...

, or northern Spain.

Early Christian and Byzantine architecture

Italy was widely affected by the Early Christian age, with Rome being the new seat of the pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

. The Byzantines also came to Italy, creating several buildings, palaces and churches in their own style.

The Christian concept of a "Basilica" was invented in Rome. They were known for being long, rectangular buildings, which were built in an almost ancient Roman style, often rich in mosaics and decorations. The early Christians' art and architecture was also widely inspired by that of the pagan Romans; statues, mosaics and paintings decorated all their churches. Late-Christian frescos can be easily seen in some of the many catacombs in Rome.

Byzantine architecture

Byzantine architecture

Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to...

was also widely diffused in Italy. When the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD, the Byzantines were the leaders in the world regarding aspects of culture, arts, music, literature, fashion, science, technology, business and architecture too. The Byzantines, which technincally were the people of the Eastern Roman Empire, kept Roman principles of architecture and art alive, yet gave it a more Eastern twist, and were famous for their slightly flatter domes, and richer usage of gilded mosaics and icons rather than statues. Since the Byzantines resided in Sicily for some time, their architectural influence can still be seen today, for example, in the Cathedral of Cefalu

Cefalù

Cefalù is a city and comune in the province of Palermo, located on the northern coast of Sicily, Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea about 70 km east from the provincial capital and 185 km west of Messina...

, in Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

or in Monreale

Monreale

Monreale is a town and comune in the province of Palermo, in Sicily, Italy, on the slope of Monte Caputo, overlooking the very fertile valley called "La Conca d'oro" , famed for its orange, olive and almond trees, the produce of which is exported in large quantities...

, with their richly decorated churches. St Mark's Basilica

St Mark's Basilica

The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice, northern Italy. It is the most famous of the city's churches and one of the best known examples of Byzantine architecture...

in Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

is also an example of Byzantine architecture in Italy.

Romanesque architecture

In between the Byzantine period and the Gothic period was the Romanesque movement, which went from approximately 800 AD to 1100 AD. This was one of the most fruitful and creative periods in Italian architecture, with several masterpieces, such as the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Leaning Tower of Pisa

The Leaning Tower of Pisa or simply the Tower of Pisa is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa...

in the Piazza dei Miracoli, and the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio

Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio

The Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio is a church in Milan, northern Italy.-History:One of the most ancient churches in Milan, it was built by St. Ambrose in 379-386, in an area where numerous martyrs of the Roman persecutions had been buried. The first name of the church was in fact Basilica...

in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

were built. It was called "Roman"-esque because of its usage of the Roman arches, stained glass windows, and also its curved columns which commonly featured in cloisters.

Romanesque architecture varied greatly in Italy in both style and construction. Arguably the most artistic was Tuscan, notably Florentine and Pisan Romanesque architecture, yet that of Sicily, influenced by the Norman settlers, was considerable too. Lombard Romanesque was certainly more structurally progressive than the Tuscan but less artistic.

Romanesque architecture in Italy halted the construction of wooden roofs in churches, and also experimented with the usage of the groined vault or barrels. The buildings' weight tended to buckle on the outside, and there used to be buttresses to support the buildings. Church walls using the Romanesque tended to be bulky and heavy to support the roof, however this meant that Romanesque church interiors in Italy tended to be far more banal and bland than those of the Early Christian and Byzantine periods. They used to simply consist of marble or stone, and had little decoration, unlike the rich mosaics found in Italian Byzantine architectural works.

The main innovation of Italian Romanesque architecture was the vault, which had never been seen before in the history of Western architecture.

Gothic architecture

The Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

appeared in Italy in the 12th century. Italian Gothic always maintained peculiar characteristic which differentiated its evolution from that in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, where it had originated, and in other European countries. In particular, the architectural ardite solutions and technical innovations of the French Gothic cathedrals never appeared: Italian architects preferred to keep the construction tradition established in the previous countries. Aesthetically, in Italy the vertical development was rarely important.

Gothic architecture was imported in Italy, just as it was in many other European countries. The Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

Cistercian order was, through their new edifices, the main carrier of this new architectural style. It spread from Burgundy (in what is now eastern France), their original area, over the rest of Western Europe

A possible timeline of Gothic architecture in Italy can comprise:

an initial development of the Cistercian architecture
an "early Gothic" phase (c. 1228-1290)
the "mature Gothic" of 1290-1385
a late Gothic phase from 1385 to the 16th century, with the completion of the great Gothic edifices begun previously, as the Milan Cathedral and San Petronio Basilica
San Petronio Basilica
The Basilica of San Petronio is the main church of Bologna, Emilia Romagna, northern Italy. It dominates the Piazza Maggiore. It is the fifth largest church in the world, stretching for 132 meters in length and 60 meters in width, while the vault reaches 45 meters inside and 51 meters in the facade...

in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

.

Renaissance and Mannerist architecture

Italy of the 15th century, and the city of Florence in particular, was home to the Renaissance. It is in Florence that the new architectural style had its beginning, not slowly evolving in the way that Gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

grew out of Romanesque

Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

, but consciously brought to being by particular architects who sought to revive the order of a past "Golden Age

Golden Age

The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...

". The scholarly approach to the architecture of the ancient coincided with the general revival of learning. A number of factors were influential in bringing this about.

Italian architects had always preferred forms that were clearly defined and structural members that expressed their purpose. Many Tuscan Romanesque buildings demonstrate these characteristics, as seen in the Florence Bapistery and Pisa Cathedral.

Italy had never fully adopted the Gothic style of architecture. Apart from the Cathedral of Milan, largely the work of German builders, few Italian churches show the emphasis on vertically, the clustered shafts, ornate tracery and complex ribbed vaulting that characterise Gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

in other parts of Europe.

The presence, particularly in Rome, of ancient architectural remains showing the ordered Classical style provided an inspiration to artists at a time when philosophy was also turning towards the Classical.

The Dome of Florence Cathedral

Florence Cathedral, (called il Duomo), built by Arnolfo di Cambio, had a huge hole at the centre. The competition to build a roof over it was won by Brunelleschi

Filippo Brunelleschi

Filippo Brunelleschi was one of the foremost architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance. He is perhaps most famous for inventing linear perspective and designing the dome of the Florence Cathedral, but his accomplishments also included bronze artwork, architecture , mathematics,...

who built the largest dome since Roman times. He cleverly got the whole city excited by getting teams of workers from the eight parts of the city.

Church of San Lorenzo

This church in Florence was designed by Brunelleschi using all the things he had learnt by looking at the architecture

Architecture

of Ancient Rome. It has arches, columns and round-topped windows in the Roman style. It looks completely different to the pointy-arched churches of the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

. Only the inside was finished. The outside is still all rough bricks and no-on knows exacly how it was meant to look. On the inside, however, Brunelleschi taught everyone a new set of architectural rules.

Church of Sant' Andrea

When the Ancient Roman Emperors came back from winning a battle, they built a Triumphal Arch

Triumphal arch

A triumphal arch is a monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crowned with a flat entablature or attic on which a statue might be...

as a monument to themself. There are several of these monuments in Rome and they have the same design: a big arch at the centre, and a smaller lower arch or doorway on either side. The architect Alberti

Alberti

-Places:* Alberti Partido, a partido of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina* Alberti, Buenos Aires, the main town of the partido-Other:*Alberti bass, a musical accompaniment figuration, usually in the left hand on a keyboard instrument...

used this as the design for the front of the church of Sant' Andrea in Mantua. He used the same pattern of tall and arched, low and square, all down the inside of the church as well. This was copied by many other architects.

Medici-Riccardi Palace

When it came to building palaces, the rich people of the Renaissance had different needs to the Roman Emperors, so the architects had to use the rules to make a new sort of grand building. These Renaissance palaces are usually three stories high and quite plain on the outside. On the inside there is a courtyard, surrounded by beautiful columns and windows. Architects like Michelozzo

Michelozzo

thumb|250px|[[Palazzo Medici]] in Florence.Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi was an Italian architect and sculptor.-Biography:...

who worked for Cosimo de' Medici, looked at the Roman Colisseum (sports arena) which is three stories high with rows of arches.

Saint Peter's Basilica

The most famous church in Rome was the ancient Church that had been built over the grave of St. Peter. By 1500 it was falling down. The Pope decided that instead of repairing it, it should be pulled down and a brand new church should be built. By the time it was finished, lots of important artists had worked on the design including Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...

, Raphael

Raphael

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...

, Bramante, Maderna and Sangallo. It was the first building to use huge columns called a "giant order". It has one of the most magnificent domes in the world. It has been copied in many countries.

Villa Rotunda

This country house was built by Palladio in 1550. It is a square building which looks the same from every side. At the centre, there is a dome. On every side is a large porch, (portico), like a Greek temple

Parthenon

The Parthenon is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their virgin patron. Its construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. It was completed in 438 BC, although...

. It is such an elegant design that other architects used the same style which can be seen on churches, houses and palaces, including the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

Rome and South Italy

The sacred architecture of the Baroque period had its beginnings in the Italian paradigm

Paradigm

The word paradigm has been used in science to describe distinct concepts. It comes from Greek "παράδειγμα" , "pattern, example, sample" from the verb "παραδείκνυμι" , "exhibit, represent, expose" and that from "παρά" , "beside, beyond" + "δείκνυμι" , "to show, to point out".The original Greek...

of the basilica

Basilica

with crossed dome and nave

Nave

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

. One of the first Roman structures to break with the Mannerist conventions exemplified in the Gesù

Church of the Gesu

The Church of the Gesù is the mother church of the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic religious order also known as the Jesuits. Officially named , its facade is "the first truly baroque façade", introducing the baroque style into architecture ,. The church served as model for innumerable Jesuit...

, was the church of Santa Susanna

Santa Susanna

The Church of Saint Susanna at the baths of Diocletian is a Roman Catholic parish church on the Quirinal Hill in Rome, with a titulus associated to its site that dates back to about 280...

, designed by Carlo Maderno

Carlo Maderno

Carlo Maderno was a Swiss-Italian architect, born in Ticino, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His façades of Santa Susanna, St. Peter's Basilica and Sant'Andrea della Valle were of key importance in the evolution of the Italian Baroque...

. The dynamic rhythm of columns and pilasters, central massing, and the protrusion and condensed central decoration add complexity to the structure. There is an incipient playfulness with the rules of classic design, still maintaining rigor. They had domed roofs.

The same emphasis on plasticity, continuity and dramatic effects is evident in the work of Pietro da Cortona

Pietro da Cortona

Pietro da Cortona, by the name of Pietro Berrettini, born Pietro Berrettini da Cortona, was the leading Italian Baroque painter of his time and also one of the key architects in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important decorator...

, illustrated by San Luca e Santa Martina (1635) and Santa Maria della Pace

Santa Maria della Pace

Santa Maria della Pace is a church in Rome, central Italy, not far from Piazza Navona.The current building was built on the foundations of the pre-existing church of Sant'Andrea de Aquarizariis in 1482, commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV. The church was rededicated to the Virgin Mary to remember a...

(1656). The latter building, with concave wings devised to simulate a theatrical set, presses forward to fill a tiny piazza in front of it. Other Roman ensembles of the period are likewise suffused with theatricality, dominating the surrounding cityscape as a sort of theatrical environment.

Probably the best known example of such an approach is trapezoidal Saint Peter's Square

Saint Peter's Square

Saint Peter's Square is located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave within Rome .-History of St...

, which has been praised as a masterstroke of Baroque theatre. The square is shaped by two colonnades, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Gian Lorenzo Bernini was an Italian artist who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sculptor of his age and also a prominent architect...

on an unprecedented colossal scale to suit the space and provide emotions of awe. Bernini's own favourite design was the polychromatic oval church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale

Sant'Andrea al Quirinale

The Church of Saint Andrew's at the Quirinal is a Roman Catholic titular church in Rome, built for of the Jesuit seminary on the Quirinal Hill....

(1658), which, with its lofty altar and soaring dome, provides a concentrated sampling of the new architecture. His idea of the Baroque townhouse is typified by the Palazzo Barberini

Palazzo Barberini

Palazzo Barberini is a palace in Rome, facing the piazza of the same name in Rione Trevi and is home to the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica.-History:...

(1629) and Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi (1664), both in Rome.

Bernini's chief rival in the papal capital was Francesco Borromini

Francesco Borromini

Francesco Borromini, byname of Francesco Castelli was an architect from Ticino who, with his contemporaries, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro da Cortona, was a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture.A keen student of the architecture of Michelangelo and the ruins of...

, whose designs deviate from the regular compositions of the ancient world and Renaissance even more dramatically. Acclaimed by later generations as a revolutionary in architecture, Borromini condemned the anthropomorphic approach of the 16th century, choosing to base his designs on complicated geometric figures (modules). Borromini's architectural space seems to expand and contract when needed, showing some affinity with the late style of Michelangelo

Michelangelo

. His iconic masterpiece is the diminutive church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane

San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane

The Church of Saint Charles at the Four Fountains is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, Italy. Designed by the architect Francesco Borromini, it was his first independent commission. It is an iconic masterpiece of Baroque architecture, built as part of a complex of monastic buildings on the Quirinal...

, distinguished by a corrugated oval plan and complex convex-concave rhythms. A later work, Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza

Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza

The Church of Saint Yves at La Sapienza is a Roman Catholic church in Rome. The church is considered a masterpiece of Roman Baroque church architecture, built in 1642-1660 by the architect Francesco Borromini.- History :...

, displays the same antipathy to the flat surface and playful inventiveness, epitomized by a corkscrew lantern dome.

Following the death of Bernini in 1680, Carlo Fontana

Carlo Fontana

Carlo Fontana was an Italian architect, who was in part responsible for the classicizing direction taken by Late Baroque Roman architecture.-Biography:...

emerged as the most influential architect working in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. His early style is exemplified by the slightly concave façade of San Marcello al Corso

San Marcello al Corso

San Marcello al Corso is a church in Rome, Italy, devoted to Pope Marcellus I. It is located in via del Corso, the ancient via Lata, connecting Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo....

. Fontana's academic approach, though lacking in the dazzling inventiveness of his Roman predecessors, exerted substantial influence on Baroque architecture both through his prolific writings and through a number of architects whom he trained and who would disseminate the Baroque idioms throughout 18th-century Europe.

The 18th century saw the capital of Europe's architectural world transferred from Rome to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. The Italian Rococo

Rococo

Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...

, which flourished in Rome from the 1720s onward, was profoundly influenced by the ideas of Borromini. The most talented architects active in Rome—Francesco de Sanctis

Francesco de Sanctis (architect)

Francesco De Sanctis was a late Baroque Italian architect, most notable for his design of the Spanish Steps in Rome in collaboration with Alessandro Specchi...

(Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps

The Spanish Steps are a set of steps in Rome, Italy, climbing a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church at the top. The Scalinata is the widest staircase in Europe...

, 1723) and Filippo Raguzzini

Filippo Raguzzini

Filippo Raguzzini was an Italian architect best known for a range of buildings constructed during the reign of Benedict XIII.-Biography:...

(Piazza Sant'Ignazio, 1727)—had little influence outside their native country, as did numerous practitioners of the Sicilian Baroque

Sicilian Baroque

Sicilian Baroque is the distinctive form of Baroque architecture that took hold on the island of Sicily, off the southern coast of Italy, in the 17th and 18th centuries...

, including Giovanni Battista Vaccarini

Giovanni Battista Vaccarini

Giovanni Battista Vaccarini was an Italian architect, notable for his work in the Sicilian Baroque style in his homeland during the period of massive rebuilding following the earthquake of 1693. Many of his principal works can be found in the area in and around Catania.- Biography :Vaccarini was...

, Andrea Palma

Andrea Palma

Andrea Palma was an 18th century Sicilian architect, working in the Baroque style. He is credited with being one of the most notable architects of the Sicilian Baroque movement....

, and Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia

Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia

Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia was an Italian architect.He received his first training in his native Palermo. This was followed by a period in Rome from 1747 to 1759...

.
The last phase of Baroque architecture in Italy is exemplified by Luigi Vanvitelli

Luigi Vanvitelli

Luigi Vanvitelli was an Italian engineer and architect. The most prominent 18th-century architect of Italy, he practiced a sober classicizing academic Late Baroque style that made an easy transition to Neoclassicism.-Biography:Vanvitelli was born at Naples, the son of a Dutch painter of land and...

's Caserta Palace

Caserta Palace

The Royal Palace of Caserta is a former royal residence in Caserta, southern Italy, constructed for the Bourbon kings of Naples. It was the largest palace and one of the largest buildings erected in Europe during the 18th century...

, reputedly the largest building erected in Europe in the 18th century. Indebted to contemporary French and Spanish models, the palace is skillfully related to the landscape. At Naples and Caserta, Vanvitelli practiced a sober classicizing academic style, with equal attention to aesthetics

Aesthetics

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...

and engineering, a style that would make an easy transition to Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...

North Italy

In the north of Italy, the monarchs from the House of Savoy

House of Savoy

The House of Savoy was formed in the early 11th century in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, it grew from ruling a small county in that region to eventually rule the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 until the end of World War II, king of Croatia and King of Armenia...

were particularly receptive to the new style. They employed a brilliant triad of architects—Guarino Guarini, Filippo Juvarra

Filippo Juvarra

Filippo Juvarra was an Italian architect and stage set designer.-Biography:Filippo Juvarra was an Italian Baroque architect working in the early part of the eighteenth century. He was born in Messina, Sicily, to a family of goldsmiths and engravers...

and Bernardo Vittone

Bernardo Vittone

Bernardo Antonio Vittone was an Italian architect and writer. He was one of the three most important Baroque architects active in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy; the other two were Filippo Juvarra and Guarino Guarini. The youngest of the three, Vittone was the only one who was born in the...

—to illustrate the grandiose political ambitions and the newly acquired royal status of their dynasty.

Guarini was a peripatetic monk who combined many traditions (including that of Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

) to create irregular structures remarkable for their oval columns and unconventional façades. Building upon the findings of contemporary geometry and stereotomy, Guarini elaborated the concept of architectura obliqua, which approximated Borromini's style in both theoretical and structural audacity. Guarini's Palazzo Carignano

Palazzo Carignano

The Palazzo Carignano is a historical building in the centre of Turin, Italy, which currently houses the Museum of the Risorgimento. It was once a private residence of the Princes of Carignano, after whom it is named. It is famous for its unique rounded façade...

(1679) may have been the most flamboyant application of the Baroque style to the design of a private house in the 17th century.

Fluid forms, weightless details and airy prospects of Juvarra's architecture anticipated the art of Rococo

Rococo

Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...

. Although his practice ranged well beyond Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

, Juvarra's most arresting designs were created for Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia

Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia

Victor Amadeus II was Duke of Savoy from 1675 to 1730. He also held the titles of marquis of Saluzzo, duke of Montferrat, prince of Piedmont, count of Aosta, Moriana and Nizza. Louis XIV organised his marriage in order to maintain French influence in the Duchy but Victor Amadeus soon broke away...

. The visual impact of his Basilica di Superga (1717) derives from its soaring roofline and masterful placement on a hill above Turin. Rustic ambience encouraged a freer articulation of architectural form at the royal hunting lodge of the Palazzina di Stupinigi (1729). Juvarra finished his short but eventful career in Madrid, where he worked on the royal palaces at La Granja

La Granja (palace)

The Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso is an 18th century palace in the small town of San Ildefonso in the hills near Segovia, 80 km north of Madrid, central Spain, formerly the summer residence of the Kings of Spain since the reign of Philip V...

and Aranjuez

Palacio Real de Aranjuez

The Royal Palace of Aranjuez is a residence of the King of Spain, located in the town of Aranjuez, Community of Madrid, Spain. The palace is open to the public as one of the Spanish royal sites....

.

Among the many who were profoundly influenced by the brilliance and diversity of Juvarra and Guarini none was more important than Bernardo Vittone

Bernardo Vittone

. This Piedmontese architect is remembered for an outcrop of flamboyant Rococo

Rococo

Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...

churches, quatrefoil in plan and delicate in detailing. His sophisticated designs often feature multiple vaults, structures within structures and domes within domes.

Rococo and late Baroque century architecture

The most original work of all late Baroque and Rococo

Rococo

Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...

architecture is the Palazzina di caccia di Stupinigi (Hunting Lodge of Stupinigi), dating back to 18th century. Featuring a highly articulated plant based upon a Saint Andrew's Cross, it was designed by Filippo Juvarra

Filippo Juvarra

, who also built the Basilica di Superga, near Turin.

In the same period, in Veneto

Veneto

Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...

there was a rapprochement with the Palladian themes, evident in Villa Pisani

Villa Pisani

Villa Pisani is the name shared by a number of villas commissioned by the patrician Pisani family of Venice. However, Villa Pisani usually refers to a large, late baroque villa at Stra on the mainland of the Veneto, northern Italy. It was begun in the early 18th century for Alvise Pisani, the most...

at Stra

Stra

Stra is a town and comune in the province of Venice, Veneto, Italy. It is south of SR11. It is the location of the famed Villa Pisani located on the Brenta canal.-Sources:*...

(1721) and San Simeone Piccolo

San Simeone Piccolo

San Simeone Piccolo is a church in the sestiere of Santa Croce of Venice, northern Italy. From across the Grand Canal it faces the railroad terminal serving as entrypoint for most visitors to the city....

church in Venice (completed in 1738).

In Rome, the last chapter of the Baroque season has its most significant achievements in some major urban improvements like the Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps

and the Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountain is a fountain in the Trevi rione in Rome, Italy. Standing 26 metres high and 20 metres wide, it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world....

, while the façade of San Giovanni in Laterano

Basilica of St. John Lateran

The Papal Archbasilica of St. John Lateran , commonly known as St. John Lateran's Archbasilica and St. John Lateran's Basilica, is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome and the official ecclesiastical seat of the Bishop of Rome, who is the Pope...

by Alessandro Galilei, has more austere, classical traits.

In the Kingdom of Naples

Kingdom of Naples

The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...

, the architect Luigi Vanvitelli

Luigi Vanvitelli

began in 1752 the construction of the Palace of Caserta. In this large complex, the grandiose Baroque style interiors and gardens are opposed to a more sober building envelope, which seems to anticipate the motifs of Neoclassicism. The gigantic size of the palace is echoed by the Albergo Reale dei Poveri

Ospedale L'Albergo Reale dei Poveri, Naples

The Albergo Reale dei Poveri is a former public hospital/almshouse in Naples, southern Italy. It was designed by the architect Ferdinando Fuga, and construction was started in 1751. It is five storeys tall and about long. It was popularly known as "Palazzo Fuga"...

(Royal Hospice for the Poor) in Naples, built in the same years by Ferdinando Fuga

Ferdinando Fuga

Ferdinando Fuga was an Italian architect, whose main works were realized in Rome and Naples in the Baroque style.-Biography:Born in Florence, he began to work in that city as a pupil of Giovanni Battista Foggini. In 1717 he moved to Rome, to continue his apprentice studies...

Neoclassical and 19th century architecture

Italy, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, was affected by the Neoclassical architectural movement. Everything from villas, palaces, gardens, interiors and art began to be based on Roman and Greek themes, and buildings were also widely themed on the Villa Capra "La Rotonda", the masterpiece by Andrea Palladio

Andrea Palladio

Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...

.

Before the discoveries of the lost cities of Pompeii

Pompeii

The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning...

and Herculaneum

Herculaneum

Herculaneum was an ancient Roman town destroyed by volcanic pyroclastic flows in AD 79, located in the territory of the current commune of Ercolano, in the Italian region of Campania in the shadow of Mt...

, buildings were themed on Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

and Classical Athens

Classical Athens

The city of Athens during the classical period of Ancient Greece was a notable polis of Attica, Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Hippias...

, but were later inspired by these archaeological sites. Examples of Neoclassical architecture in Italy include Luigi Cagnola

Luigi Cagnola

Marchese Luigi Cagnola was an Italian architect.Cagnola was born in Milan. He was sent at the age of fourteen to the Clementine College at Rome, and afterwards studied at the University of Pavia...

's Arco della Pace, the San Carlo Theatre (Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, 1810), San Francesco di Paolo

Piazza del Plebiscito

Piazza Plebiscito is one of the largest squares in Naples. It is named for the plebiscite taken on October 2 in 1860 that brought Naples into the unified Kingdom of Italy under the House of Savoy...

(Naples, 1817), Pedrocchi Café (Padua

Padua

Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

, 1816), Canova Temple, (Posagno, 1819), Teatro Carlo Felice

Teatro Carlo Felice

The Teatro Carlo Felice is the principal opera house of Genoa, Italy, used for performances of opera, ballet, orchestral music, and recitals. It is located on the Piazza De Ferrari....

(Genoa

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

, 1827) and the Cisternone (Livorno

Livorno

Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...

, 1829).

Italy, in the mid-19th century, was also well-known for some relatively avant-garde structures. The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is a double arcade in the center of Milan, Italy. The structure is formed by two glass-vaulted arcades intersecting in an octagon covering the street connecting Piazza del Duomo to Piazza della Scala....

in Milan, built in 1865, was the first building in iron, glass and steel in Italy, and the world's oldest purposely-built shopping gallery, which later influenced the Galleria Umberto I in Naples

Naples

Modern architecture

Art Nouveau (Liberty) architecture

Art Nouveau had its main and most original exponents in Giuseppe Sommaruga

Giuseppe Sommaruga

Giuseppe Sommaruga was an Italian architect of the Art nouveau movement. He was the pupil of Camillo Boito and Luca Beltrami to the Brera Academy in Milan. His monumental architecture exerted some influence on the futurist architect Antonio Sant'Elia...

and Ernesto Basile

Ernesto Basile

Ernesto Basile was an Italian architect and an exponent of modernism and Art Nouveau. He became well-known because of his stylistic fusion of ancient, medieval and modern elements. He was one of the pioneers of Art Nouveau in Italy.- Life :He was born on January 31, 1857 in Palermo...

. The former was author of Palazzo Castiglioni

Palazzo Castiglioni (Milan)

Palazzo Castiglioni is an Art Nouveau palace of Milan, northern Italy. It was designed by Giuseppe Sommaruga and built between 1901 and 1903. The rusticated blocks of the basement imitate a natural rocky shape, while the rest of the decorations are inspired by 18th century stuccos...

in Milan, while the second projected an expansion of Palazzo Montecitorio

Palazzo Montecitorio

The Palazzo Montecitorio is a palace in Rome and the seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies.- History :The building was originally designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for the young Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, nephew of Pope Gregory XV...

in Rome.

However, in the 1920s and following years a new architectural language, razionalismo, was introduced. This form of Futurist architecture

Futurist architecture

Futurist architecture is an early-20th century form of architecture characterized by anti-historicism and long horizontal lines suggesting speed, motion and urgency. Technology and even violence were among the themes of the Futurists. The movement was founded by the poet Filippo Tommaso...

was pioneered by Antonio Sant'Elia

Antonio Sant'Elia

Antonio Sant'Elia was an extremely influential Italian architect.-Life:Antonio Sant'Elia was born in Como, Lombardy. A builder by training, he opened a design office in Milan in 1912 and became involved with the Futurist movement...

and hence by Gruppo 7

Gruppo 7

Gruppo 7 was a group of Italian architects who wanted to reform architecture by the adoption of rationalism. It was formed in 1926 by Luigi Figini, Guido Frette, Sebastiano Larco, Giuseppe Pagano, Gino Pollini, Carlo Enrico Rava, Giuseppe Terragni and Ubaldo Castagnola, replaced the following year...

, formed in 1926. After the dissolution of the group, it was adopted by single artists like Giuseppe Terragni

Giuseppe Terragni

Giuseppe Terragni was an Italian architect who worked primarily under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and pioneered the Italian modern movement under the rubric of Rationalism...

(Casa del Fascio, Como), Adalberto Libera

Adalberto Libera

Adalberto Libera is one of the most representative architects of the Italian Modern movement, which should not be confused with the Italian Rationalist movement, with which he only had a short-lived relationship....

(Villa Malaparte in Capri

Capri

Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...

) and Giovanni Michelucci

Giovanni Michelucci

Giovanni Michelucci was an Italian architect, urban planner and engraver. He was one of the major Italian architects of the 20th century, known for notable projects such as the Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station and the San Giovanni Battista church on the Autostrada del Sole....

(Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station).

During the Fascist period, razionalismo was outranked by Novecento Italiano
Novecento Italiano
Novecento Italiano was an Italian artistic movement founded in Milan in 1922 by Anselmo Bucci , Leonardo Dudreville , Achille Funi, Gian Emilio Malerba , Piero Marussig, Ubaldo Oppi and Mario Sironi...

, which rejected the avant-garde themes and aimed instead to revive the art of the past. Its most important members in the field of Architecture were Gio Ponti

Giò Ponti

Gio Ponti was one of the most important Italian architects, industrial designers, furniture designers, artists, and publishers of the twentieth century.-Early life:...

, Peter Aschieri and Giovanni Muzio

Giovanni Muzio

Giovanni Muzio was an Italian architect. Muzio was born and died in Milan and is most closely associated with the Novecento Italiano group....

. This movement inspired Marcello Piacentini

Marcello Piacentini

Marcello Piacentini was an Italian architect and urban theorist.-Biography:Born in Rome, he was the son of architect Pio Piacentini...

in his creation of a "simplified Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism

" linked to the rediscovery of the imperial Rome. Piacentini was author of several works in many Italian cities, the most important of which is the controversial creation of Via della Conciliazione

Via della Conciliazione

Via della Conciliazione is a street in the Rione of Borgo within Rome, Italy. Roughly 500 m in length, it connects Saint Peter's Square to the Castel Sant'Angelo on the western bank of the Tiber River. The road was constructed between 1936 and 1950, and it is the primary access route to the...

in Rome.

Fascist architecture

Rationalist-Fascist architecture

Fascist architecture

Rationalist-Fascist architecture was an Italian architectural style developed during the fascism regime and in particular starting from the late 1920s. It was promoted and practiced initially by the Gruppo 7 group, whose architects included Luigi Figini, Guido Frette, Sebastiano Larco, Gino...

was an Italian architectural style developed during the Fascist regime and in particular starting from the late 1920s. It was promoted and practiced initially by the Gruppo 7

Gruppo 7

group, whose architects included Luigi Figini, Guido Frette, Sebastiano Larco, Gino Pollini, Carlo Enrico Rava, Giuseppe Terragni

Giuseppe Terragni

Giuseppe Terragni was an Italian architect who worked primarily under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and pioneered the Italian modern movement under the rubric of Rationalism...

, Ubaldo Castagnola and Adalberto Libera

Adalberto Libera

. Two branches have been identified, a modernist branch with Giuseppe Terragni

Giuseppe Terragni

Giuseppe Terragni was an Italian architect who worked primarily under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and pioneered the Italian modern movement under the rubric of Rationalism...

being the most prominent exponent, and a conservative branch of which Marcello Piacentini

Marcello Piacentini

Marcello Piacentini was an Italian architect and urban theorist.-Biography:Born in Rome, he was the son of architect Pio Piacentini...

and the La Burbera group were most influential.

Post–World War II and modernist architecture

Some of the main architects working in Italy between the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st are Renzo Piano

Renzo Piano

Renzo Piano is an Italian architect. He is the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, AIA Gold Medal, Kyoto Prize and the Sonning Prize...

, Massimiliano Fuksas

Massimiliano Fuksas

Massimiliano Fuksas is an Italian architect, born in Rome in 1944 to an Jewish Lithuanian father and Italian Catholic mother. He received his degree in architecture from the La Sapienza University in 1969 in Rome, where he opened his first office. Subsequent offices were opened in Paris and Vienna...

and Gae Aulenti

Gae Aulenti

Gae Aulenti is an Italian architect, lighting and interior designer, and industrial designer. She is well known for several large-scale museum projects, including Musée d'Orsay in Paris , the Contemporary Art Gallery at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Palazzo Grassi in Venice , and the Asian Art...

. Piano's works include Stadio San Nicola

Stadio San Nicola

The Stadio San Nicola is a multi-use all-seater stadium designed by Renzo Piano in Bari, Italy. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of Associazione Sportiva Bari. It hosted the 1991 European Cup Final, won by Red Star Belgrade. The stadium itself resembles a...

in Bari, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, the renovation works of the Old Port of Genoa, Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church

Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church

The Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church is a church in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy owned by the Ordine dei Frati Minori Cappuccini di Foggia. Built in devotion to Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, it can accommodate 6,500 people seated at worship, with standing room for 30,000 people outside. The Genoan architect...

in San Giovanni Rotondo; among Fuksas' projects are Grattacielo della Regione Piemonte (skyscraper of Piedmont Region) and Centro Congressi Italia Nuvola at EUR, Rome. Gae Aulenti's Italian works feature the renovation works of Palazzo Grassi

Palazzo Grassi

Palazzo Grassi is an edifice in the Venetian Classical style located on the Grand Canal of Venice, northern Italy...

in Venice and the Stazione Museo ("Museum Station") of Naples Metro

Metropolitana di Napoli

Metropolitana di Napoli is the metro system serving the city of Naples, Italy. The system includes three underground rapid transit lines and commuter railways , with planned upgrading and expansion work underway...

.

Other remarkable figures for contemporary architecture in Italy are the Swiss Mario Botta

Mario Botta

Mario Botta is a Swiss architect. He studied at the Liceo Artistico in Milan and the IUAV in Venice. His ideas were influenced by Le Corbusier, Carlo Scarpa, Louis Kahn. He opened his own practice in 1970 in Lugano.-Career:...

(Museo d'arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, renovation of La Scala

La Scala

La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...

in Milan), Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid, CBE is an Iraqi-British architect.-Life and career:Hadid was born in 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. She received a degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.After graduating she worked...

(National Museum of the 21st Century Arts

MAXXI – National Museum of the 21st Century Arts

The MAXXI - National Museum of the 21st Century Arts is a national museum dedicated to contemporary creativity, located in the Flaminio neighbourhood of Rome, Italy. It is managed by a foundation created by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities...

in Rome, skyscraper "Lo Storto" in Milan), Richard Meier

Richard Meier

Richard Meier is an American architect, whose rationalist buildings make prominent use of the color white.- Biography :Meier is Jewish and was born in Newark, New Jersey...

(Jubilee Church

Jubilee Church

The Jubilee Church, formally known as Dio Padre Misericordioso, is a church and community center in Tor Tre Teste in Rome. According to Richard Meier, its architect, it is "the crown jewel of the Vicariato di Roma's Millennium project"...

and cover building of Ara Pacis

Ara Pacis

The Ara Pacis Augustae is an altar to Peace, envisioned as a Roman goddess...

, both in Rome), Norman Foster

Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank

Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, OM is a British architect whose company maintains an international design practice, Foster + Partners....

(Firenze Belfiore railway station), Daniel Libeskind

Daniel Libeskind

Daniel Libeskind, is an American architect, artist, and set designer of Polish-Jewish descent. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect...

(skyscraper "Il Curvo" in Milan) and Arata Isozaki

Arata Isozaki

Arata Isozaki is a Japanese architect from Ōita. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1954. Isozaki worked under Kenzo Tange before establishing his own firm in 1963. He was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1986.In 2005, Arata Isozaki founded the Italian branch of his office: Arata Isozaki &...

(Palasport Olimpico in Turin, together with Pier Paolo Maggiora

Pier Paolo Maggiora

-Biography:He was born in 1943 in Saluzzo. In Turin he got the Master of Arts degree with Carlo Mollino.Apprenticeship in the ateliers of Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Carlo Scarpa, Oscar Niemeyer and Kenzo Tange....

and Marco Brizio; skyscraper "Il Dritto" in Milan).

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