Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance was the period of rebirthing. (Renaissance mean "rebirth") This era took place between the 24th and 16th century. The rebirth took place in Florence, Siena, and Venice but it all started in Tuscany. Italian Renaissance architects based their theories and practices on Classical Roman examples. The Renaissance revival of Classical Rome was as important in architecture as it was in literature. A pilgrimage to Rome to study the ancient buildings and ruins, especially the Colosseum and Pantheon, was considered essential to an architect's training. Classical orders and architectural elements such as columns, pilasters, pediments, entablatures, arches, and domes form the vocabulary of Renaissance buildings.


Palazzo style refers to an architectural style of the 19th and 20th centuries based upon the palazzi built by wealthy families of the Italian Renaissance. The term refers to the general shape, proportion and a cluster of characteristics, rather than a specific design. In the 20th century, the style was applied, like the Gothic revival style, to multi-story buildings. In the late 20th and 21st century some Postmodern architects have again drawn on the palazzo style for city buildings.

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