Neoclassical architecture

Neoclassical architecture, sometimes referred to as Classical

Revival architecture, is an architectural style produced by the
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in
Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent
architectural styles in the Western world.[1] The prevailing
styles of architecture in most of Europe for the previous two
centuries, Renaissance architecture and Baroque architecture,
already represented partial revivals of the Classical architecture
of ancient Rome and ancient Greek architecture, but the
Neoclassical movement aimed to strip away the excesses of
Late Baroque and return to a purer and more authentic
classical style, adapted to modern purposes.

The development of archaeology and published accurate

records of surviving classical buildings was crucial in the
emergence of Neoclassical architecture. In many countries,
there was an initial wave essentially drawing on Roman
architecture, followed, from about the start of the 19th century,
by a second wave of Greek Revival architecture. This
followed increased understanding of Greek survivals. As the
19th century continued, the style tended to lose its original
rather austere purity in variants like the French Empire style.
The term "neoclassical" is often used very loosely for any
building using some of the classical architectural vocabulary.

In form, Neoclassical architecture emphasizes the wall rather

than chiaroscuro and maintains separate identities to each of its
parts. The style is manifested both in its details as a reaction
against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its
architectural formulae as an outgrowth of some classicizing
features of the Late Baroque architectural tradition. Therefore, Top: The Petit Trianon (Versailles,
the style is defined by symmetry, simple geometry, and social France), 1764, by Ange-Jacques
demands instead of ornament.[2] In the 21st century, a version Gabriel; Centre: The Salon de
of the style continues, sometimes called New Classical Compagnie of the Petit Trianon; Bottom:
architecture or New Classicism. Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (Paris),
1806–1808, by Pierre-François-
History Léonard Fontaine
Years 18th century–mid-20th
Neoclassical architecture is a specific style and moment in the active century
late 18th and early 19th centuries that was specifically
associated with the Enlightenment, empiricism, and the study of sites by early archaeologists.[3] Classical
architecture after about 1840 must be classified as one of a series of "revival" styles, such as Greek,
Renaissance, or Italianate. Various historians of the 19th century have made this clear since the 1970s.
Classical architecture during the 20th century is classified less as a revival, and more a return to a style was
decelerated with the advent of Modernism. Yet still Neoclassical architecture is beginning to be practiced
again in the 21st century more in the form of New Classical Architecture and even in Gentrification and
Historicism Architecture, the Neoclassical architecture or its important elements are still being used, even
when the Postmodernist architecture is dominant throughout the world.

Palladianism

A return to more classical architectural forms as a reaction to the

Rococo style can be detected in some European architecture of the
earlier 18th century, most vividly represented in the Palladian
architecture of Georgian Britain and Ireland. The name refers to the
designs of the 16th-century Venetian architect Andrea Palladio.

The Baroque style had never truly been to the English taste. Four
influential books were published in the first quarter of the 18th The Basilica Palladiana at Vicenza
century which highlighted the simplicity and purity of classical in Veneto, Italy
architecture: Vitruvius Britannicus by Colen Campbell (1715),
Palladio's I quattro libri dell'architettura (The Four Books of
Architecture, 1715), De re aedificatoria by Leon Battista Alberti (first published in 1452) and The Designs
of Inigo Jones... with Some Additional Designs (1727). The most popular was the four-volume Vitruvius
Britannicus by Colen Campbell. The book contained architectural prints of famous British buildings that
had been inspired by the great architects from Vitruvius to Palladio. At first the book mainly featured the
work of Inigo Jones, but the later tomes contained drawings and plans by Campbell and other 18th-century
architects. Palladian architecture became well established in 18th-century Britain.

At the forefront of the new school of design was the aristocratic "architect earl", Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of
Burlington; in 1729, he and William Kent designed Chiswick House. This house was a reinterpretation of
Palladio's Villa Capra "La Rotonda", but purified of 16th-century elements and ornament. This severe lack
of ornamentation was to be a feature of Palladianism. In 1734, William Kent and Lord Burlington designed
one of England's finest examples of Palladian architecture, Holkham Hall in Norfolk. The main block of
this house followed Palladio's dictates quite closely, but Palladio's low, often detached, wings of farm
buildings were elevated in significance.

This classicizing vein was also detectable, to a lesser degree, in the Late Baroque architecture in Paris, such
as in the Louvre Colonnade. This shift was even visible in Rome at the redesigned façade for Archbasilica
of Saint John Lateran.
The east façade of Russborough House Woburn Abbey (Woburn,
Stourhead House, based (County Wicklow, Ireland) a Bedfordshire, England),
on Palladio's Villa Emo notable example of Irish 1746, by Henry Flitcroft
Palladianism,[4] 1741–
1755, by Richard Cassels

Nova Scotia Legislature

Building from Halifax (Nova
Scotia, Canada), 1819

Neoclassicism

Comparison between a 1st-century (AD) Roman wall painting of an ornate door, in the Villa Boscoreale (Italy);
and a massive 19th-century Neoclassical door of the Palace of Justice (Brussels, Belgium)
By the mid-18th century, the movement broadened to incorporate a greater range of classical influences,
including those from Ancient Greece. An early centre of neoclassicism was Italy, especially Naples, where
by the 1730s court architects such as Luigi Vanvitelli and Ferdinando Fuga were recovering classical,
Palladian and Mannerist forms in their Baroque architecture. Following their lead, Giovanni Antonio
Medrano began to build the first truly neoclassical structures in Italy in the 1730s. In the same period,
Alessandro Pompei introduced neoclassicism to the Venetian Republic, building one of the first lapidariums
in Europe in Verona, in the Doric style (1738). During the same period, neoclassical elements were
introduced to Tuscany by architect Jean Nicolas Jadot de Ville-Issey, the court architect of Francis Stephen
of Lorraine. On Jadot's lead, an original neoclassical style was developed by Gaspare Maria Paoletti,
transforming Florence into the most important centre of neoclassicism in the peninsula. In the second half of
the century, Neoclassicism flourished also in Turin, Milan (Giuseppe Piermarini) and Trieste (Matteo
Pertsch). In the latter two cities, just as in Tuscany, the sober neoclassical style was linked to the reformism
of the ruling Habsburg enlightened monarchs.

The shift to neoclassical architecture is conventionally dated to the 1750s. It first gained influence in
England and France; in England, Sir William Hamilton's excavations at Pompeii and other sites, the
influence of the Grand Tour, and the work of William Chambers and Robert Adam, were pivotal in this
regard. In France, the movement was propelled by a generation of French art students trained in Rome, and
was influenced by the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann. The style was also adopted by
progressive circles in other countries such as Sweden and Russia.

International neoclassical architecture was exemplified in Karl Friedrich Schinkel's buildings, especially the
Altes Museum in Berlin, Sir John Soane's Bank of England in London and the newly built White House
and Capitol in Washington, D.C. of the nascent American Republic. The style was international. The
Baltimore Basilica, which was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe in 1806, is considered one of the
finest examples of neoclassical architecture in the world.

A second neoclassic wave, more severe, more studied and more consciously archaeological, is associated
with the height of the First French Empire. In France, the first phase of neoclassicism was expressed in the
Louis XVI style, and the second in the styles called Directoire and Empire. Its major proponents were
Percier and Fontaine, court architects who specialized in interior decoration.[5]

In the decorative arts, neoclassicism is exemplified in French furniture of the Empire style; the English
furniture of Chippendale, George Hepplewhite and Robert Adam, Wedgwood's bas reliefs and "black
basaltes" vases, and the Biedermeier furniture of Austria. The Scottish architect Charles Cameron created
palatial Italianate interiors for the German-born Catherine II the Great in Saint Petersburg.[6]
West facade of the Petit The Panthéon (Paris), The Rotunda of the
Trianon (Versailles, France) 1758–1790 University of Virginia
(Charlottesville, Virginia,
US), by Thomas Jefferson
and Stanford White, 1826

The Academy of Athens, Old Legislative Building, Oudenbosch Basilica, 1892

1859, by Theophil Hansen 1918 and rebuilt in 1945 (Oudenbosch, The
(Manila, Philippines) Netherlands)
 Concertgebouw, 1886 Ripon Building, 1909
(Amsterdam, The (Chennai, India)
Netherlands)

Interior design

Indoors, neoclassicism made a discovery of the genuine classic

interior, inspired by the rediscoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum.
These had begun in the late 1740s, but only achieved a wide
audience in the 1760s, with the first luxurious volumes of tightly
controlled distribution of Le Antichità di Ercolano Esposte (The
Antiquities of Herculaneum Exposed). The antiquities of
Herculaneum showed that even the most classicizing interiors of the
Baroque, or the most "Roman" rooms of William Kent were based Château de Malmaison, 1800, room
on basilica and temple exterior architecture turned outside in, hence for the Empress Joséphine, on the
their often bombastic appearance to modern eyes: pedimented cusp between Directoire and Empire
window frames turned into gilded mirrors, fireplaces topped with style
temple fronts.

The new interiors sought to recreate an authentically Roman and genuinely interior vocabulary. Techniques
employed in the style included flatter, lighter motifs, sculpted in low frieze-like relief or painted in
monotones en camaïeu ("like cameos"), isolated medallions or vases or busts or bucrania or other motifs,
suspended on swags of laurel or ribbon, with slender arabesques against backgrounds, perhaps, of
"Pompeiian red" or pale tints, or stone colours. The style in France was initially a Parisian style, the goût
grec ("Greek taste"), not a court style; when Louis XVI acceded to the throne in 1774, Marie Antoinette,
his fashion-loving Queen, brought the Louis XVI style to court. However, there was no real attempt to
employ the basic forms of Roman furniture until around the turn of the century, and furniture-makers were
more likely to borrow from ancient architecture, just as silversmiths were more likely to take from ancient
pottery and stone-carving than metalwork: "Designers and craftsmen [...] seem to have taken an almost
perverse pleasure in transferring motifs from one medium to another".[7]

A new phase in neoclassical design was inaugurated by Robert and James Adam, who travelled in Italy and
Dalmatia in the 1750s, observing the ruins of the classical world. On their return to Britain, they published
a book entitled The Works in Architecture in installments between 1773 and 1779. This book of engraved
designs made the Adam style available throughout Europe. The Adam brothers aimed to simplify the
Rococo and Baroque styles which had been fashionable in the preceding decades, to bring what they felt to
be a lighter and more elegant feel to Georgian houses. The Works in Architecture illustrated the main
buildings the Adam brothers had worked on and crucially documented the interiors, furniture and fittings,
designed by the Adams.

The Blue Salon of the Detail of the ceiling of the Design for a room in the
Château de Compiègne Arc de Triomphe from Paris Etruscan or Pompeian
(Compiègne, France), an style, from 1833, in the
example of an Empire Metropolitan Museum of Art
interior (New York City)

Dining room of the The Reading Room of the

Centralhotel (Berlin), Bibliothèque Mazarine
designed in 1881 by von (Paris)
der Hude & Hennicke

Greek Revival

From about 1800 a fresh influx of Greek architectural examples, seen through the medium of etchings and
engravings, gave a new impetus to neoclassicism, the Greek Revival. There was little direct knowledge of
surviving Greek buildings before the middle of the 18th century in Western Europe, when an expedition
funded by the Society of Dilettanti in 1751 and led by James Stuart and Nicholas Revett began serious
archaeological enquiry. Stuart was commissioned after his return from Greece by George Lyttelton to
produce the first Greek building in England, the garden temple at Hagley Hall (1758–59).[8] A number of
British architects in the second half of the century took up the expressive challenge of the Doric from their
aristocratic patrons, including Joseph Bonomi and John Soane, but it was to remain the private enthusiasm
of connoisseurs up to the first decade of the 19th century.[9]
Seen in its wider social context, Greek Revival architecture
sounded a new note of sobriety and restraint in public buildings in
Britain around 1800 as an assertion of nationalism attendant on the
Act of Union, the Napoleonic Wars, and the clamour for political
reform. It was to be William Wilkins's winning design for the public
competition for Downing College, Cambridge, that announced the
Greek style was to be the dominant idiom in architecture. Wilkins
and Robert Smirke went on to build some of the most important
buildings of the era, including the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden Second Bank of the United States,
(1808–1809), the General Post Office (1824–1829) and the British Philadelphia, 1818-1824, by William
Museum (1823–1848), Wilkins University College London (1826– Strickland
1830) and the National Gallery (1832–1838). In Scotland, Thomas
Hamilton (1784–1858), in collaboration with the artists Andrew
Wilson (1780–1848) and Hugh William Williams (1773–1829) created monuments and buildings of
international significance; the Burns Monument at Alloway (1818) and the (Royal) High School in
Edinburgh (1823–1829).

At the same time the Empire style in France was a more grandiose wave of neoclassicism in architecture
and the decorative arts. Mainly based on Imperial Roman styles, it originated in, and took its name from,
the rule of Napoleon I in the First French Empire, where it was intended to idealize Napoleon's leadership
and the French state. The style corresponds to the more bourgeois Biedermeier style in the German-
speaking lands, Federal style in the United States, the Regency style in Britain, and the Napoleonstil in
Sweden. According to the art historian Hugh Honour "so far from being, as is sometimes supposed, the
culmination of the Neo-classical movement, the Empire marks its rapid decline and transformation back
once more into a mere antique revival, drained of all the high-minded ideas and force of conviction that had
inspired its masterpieces".[10]
 British Museum, London, by Bordeaux Courthouse, Royal Scottish Academy,
Robert Smirke, 1823-1847 Bordeaux, France, Edinburgh, Scotland,
unknown architect, 1839- unknown architect,
1846 unknown date

Propyläen, Munich, Austrian Parliament Friedrich-von-Thiersch hall

Germany, by Leo von Building, Vienna, by of the Kurhaus, Wiesbaden,
Klenze, finished in 1862 Theophil Hansen, 1874- Germany, 1905-1907, by
1883 Friedrich von Thiersch

Characteristics
High neoclassicism was an international movement. Architects reacted
against the excesses and profuse ornament used in Late Baroque
architecture. The new "classical" architecture emphasized planar
qualities, rather than elaborate sculptural ornament in both the interior
and the exterior. Projections and recessions and their effects of light
and shade were more flat; sculptural bas-reliefs were flat and tended to
be framed by friezes, tablets or panels. This was the first "stripped
down" classical architecture, and appeared to be modern in the context
of the Revolutionary period in Europe. At its most elemental, as in the
The L'Enfant Plan for
work of Etienne-Louis Boullée, it was highly abstract and
Washington, D.C., as revised by
geometrically pure.[11]
Andrew Ellicott in 1792.
Neoclassicism also influenced city planning. The ancient Romans
had used a consolidated scheme for city planning for both defence
and civil convenience; however, the roots of this scheme go back to
even older civilizations. At its most basic, the grid system of streets,
a central forum with city services, two main slightly wider
boulevards, and the occasional diagonal street were characteristic of
the very logical and orderly Roman design. Ancient façades and
building layouts were oriented to these city design patterns and they
tended to work in proportion with the importance of public
buildings.

Many of these urban planning patterns found their way into the first
modern planned cities of the 18th century. Exceptional examples
include Karlsruhe, Washington, D.C., Saint Petersburg, Buenos
The neoclassical Helsinki Cathedral
Aires, Havana, and Barcelona. Contrasting models may be found in
from the 19th century, near the
Modernist designs exemplified by Brasília, the Garden city
Senate Square in Helsinki, Finland.
movement, and levittowns.

Regional trends

Great Britain and Ireland

From the middle of the 18th century, exploration and publication changed the course of British architecture
towards a purer vision of the Ancient Greco-Roman ideal. James 'Athenian' Stuart's work The Antiquities of
Athens and Other Monuments of Greece was very influential in this regard, as were Robert Wood's
Palmyra and Baalbec. A combination of simple forms and high levels of enrichment was adopted by the
majority of contemporary British architects and designers. The revolution begun by Stuart was soon to be
eclipsed by the work of the Adam brothers, James Wyatt, Sir William Chambers, George Dance, James
Gandon, and provincially based architects such as John Carr and Thomas Harrison of Chester.

In Scotland and the north of England, where the Gothic Revival was less strong, architects continued to
develop the neoclassical style of William Henry Playfair. The works of Cuthbert Brodrick and Alexander
Thomson show that by the end of the 19th century the results could be powerful and eccentric.

In Ireland, where Gothic Revival was also less popular, a refined, restrained form of the neoclassical
developed, and can be seen in the works of James Gandon and other architects working at the time. It is
particularly evident in Dublin, which is a largely neoclassical and Georgian city.
The Circus (Bath, Bedroom in Harewood Kedleston Hall (Kedleston,
Somerset, England), 1754– House (Harewood, West Derbyshire, England)
1768, by John Wood, the Yorkshire, England), 1759– based on the Arch of
Elder 1771, by Robert Adam Constantine in Rome, the
1760s, by Robert Adam

Interior of Syon House Dining room of Syon The General Register

(London) with Ionic House, with a complex House (Edinburgh,
columns and gilded ceiling Scotland), 1774–1788, by
statues, 1767–1775, by Robert Adam
Robert Adam
Buildings in Lower The central courtyard of Ionic Temple at the
O'Connell Street (Dublin) Somerset House (London), Chiswick House (London),
constructed between 1918 1776, by Sir William an example of English
and 1923 in the highly Chambers landscape garden
refined and aesthetically
restrained style typical of
the Irish capital

The Greek hexastyle The western front of St Dublin's Custom House

portico of the General Post George's Hall in Liverpool
Office (Dublin) completed in from St. John's Gardens
1818

Parliament Buildings,
Northern Ireland (1933)
France

The first phase of neoclassicism in France is expressed in the Louis

XV style of architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel (Petit Trianon, 1762–
1768); the second phase, in the styles called Directoire and Empire,
might be characterized by Jean Chalgrin's severe astylar Arc de
Triomphe (designed in 1806). In England the two phases might be
characterized first by the structures of Robert Adam, the second by
those of Sir John Soane. The interior style in France was initially a
Parisian style, the "Goût grec" ("Greek style") not a court style.
Parisian apartment building on Rue
Only when the young king acceded to the throne in 1774 did Marie
de Rivoli. The name of the street
Antoinette, his fashion-loving Queen, bring the Louis XVI style to
comes from Napoleon's victory over
court.
the Austrians at the Battle of Rivoli
(1797)
Many early 19th-century neoclassical architects were influenced by
the drawings and projects of Étienne-Louis Boullée and Claude
Nicolas Ledoux. The many graphite drawings of Boullée and his
students depict spare geometrical architecture that emulates the eternality of the universe. There are links
between Boullée's ideas and Edmund Burke's conception of the sublime. Ledoux addressed the concept of
architectural character, maintaining that a building should immediately communicate its function to the
viewer: taken literally, such ideas give rise to architecture parlante ("speaking architecture").

From about 1800 a fresh influx of Greek architectural examples, seen through the medium of etchings and
engravings, gave a new impetus to neoclassicism that is called the Greek Revival. Although several
European cities – notably Saint Petersburg, Athens, Berlin and Munich – were transformed into veritable
museums of Greek revival architecture, the Greek Revival in France was never popular with either the state
or the public.
Boudoir de la Reine of the The Panthéon (Paris), Château de Bagatelle
Palace of Fontainebleau 1758–1790, by Jacques- (Paris), a small
(Fontainbleau) Germain Soufflot (1713– Neoclassical château,
1780) and Jean-Baptiste 1777, by François-Joseph
Rondelet (1743–1829) Bélanger

Stairway of the Grand The Palais de la Légion Cabinet doré of Marie-

Theater of Bordeaux, 1780, d'Honneur (Paris), 1782– Antoinette at the Palace of
by Victor Louis 1787, by Pierre Rousseau Versailles (1783)
 Église de la Madeleine The Blue Salon of the Empress's bedroom from
(Paris), 1807–1828, by Château de Compiègne the Château de Malmaison,
Pierre-Alexandre Vignon (Compiègne), an example another Empire interior
of an Empire interior

The Vendôme Column The Guimet Museum

(Paris), modelled after (Paris), by Jules Chatron
Trajan's Column, 1810

Greece

After the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece in 1832, the architecture of Greece was mostly
influenced by the Neoclassical architecture. For Athens, the first King of Greece, Otto I, commissioned the
architects Stamatios Kleanthis and Eduard Schaubert to design a modern city plan. The Old Royal Palace
was the first important public building to be built, between 1836 and 1843. Later, in the mid- and late 19th
century, Theophil von Hansen and Ernst Ziller took part in the construction of many neoclassical buildings.
Theophil von Hansen designed his first building, the National Observatory of Athens, and two of the three
contiguous buildings forming the so-called "Athens Classical Trilogy", namely the Academy of Athens
(1859) and the National Library of Greece (1888), the third building of the trilogy being the National and
Capodistrian University of Athens (1843), which was designed by his brother Christian Hansen. Also he
designed the Zappeion Hall (1888). Ernst Ziller also designed many private mansions in the centre of
Athens which gradually became public, usually through donations, such the mansion of Heinrich
Schliemann, Iliou Melathron (1880). The city of Nauplio is also an important example of Neoclassical
architecture along with the islands of Poros and Syros (especially in the capital Ermoupoli).
The Old Royal Palace, The National Library of The main building of the
completed in 1843 Greece designed by Academy of Athens, one of
Theophil von Hansen Theophil Hansen's
(1888) "Trilogy" in central Athens
(1859)

The National and The Zappeion (1888) The Numismatic Museum

Capodistrian University of of Athens or Iliou Melathron
Athens (1843) built for Heinrich
Schliemann by Ernst Ziller
(1880)
 The Presidential Mansion
(formerly the Crown
Prince's Palace) in Athens
built by Ernst Ziller

Japan

Although not a western country, due to Western influence Japan has had neoclassical architecture produced
in it. This includes the unique Hiko Shrine which is a Shinto shrine based on Greek temples. It later
developed into the Imperial Crown Style which contains elements of both Eastern and Western design[12]
Roofs are notably distinctly Asian in this style and it was used heavily by the Japanese Empire in its
colonies.[13][14][15]

National Museum of Nature Hiko Shrine (1915) Osaka Exchange (1949)

and Science 1871

Hungary

The earliest examples of neoclassical architecture in Hungary may be found in Vác. In this town the
triumphal arch and the neoclassical façade of the Baroque Cathedral were designed by the French architect
Isidor Marcellus Amandus Ganneval (Isidore Canevale) in the 1760s. Also the work of a French architect,
Charles Moreau, is the garden façade of the Esterházy Palace (1797–1805) in Kismarton (today Eisenstadt
in Austria).
 The two principal architects of Neoclassicism in Hungary were Mihály
Pollack and József Hild. Pollack's major work is the Hungarian National
Museum (1837–1844). Hild is famous for his designs for the Cathedral of
Eger and Esztergom. The Reformed Great Church of Debrecen is an
outstanding example of the many Protestant churches that were built in the
first half of the 19th century. This was the time of the first iron structures in
Hungarian architecture, the most important of which is the Chain Bridge
(Budapest) by William Tierney Clark.

Malta

Neoclassical architecture was

Széchenyi Chain Bridge, introduced in Malta in the late
Budapest by William
18th century, during the final
Tierney Clark, 1840–1849
years of Hospitaller rule. Early
examples include the
Bibliotheca (1786), [16] the De
Rohan Arch (1798) [17] and the Hompesch Gate (1801).[18]
However, neoclassical architecture only became popular in
Malta following the establishment of British rule in the early The Rotunda of Mosta, built between
19th century. In 1814, a neoclassical portico decorated with the 1833 and 1860
British coat of arms was added to the Main Guard building so
as to serve as a symbol of British Malta. Other 19th-century
neoclassical buildings include the Monument to Sir Alexander Ball (1810), RNH Bighi (1832), St Paul's
Pro-Cathedral (1844), the Rotunda of Mosta (1860) and the now-destroyed Royal Opera House (1866).[19]

Neoclassicism gave way to other architectural styles by the late 19th century. Few buildings were built in
the neoclassical style during the 20th century, such as the Domvs Romana museum (1922),[20] and the
Courts of Justice building in Valletta (1965–1971).[21]

Mexico

As part of the Spanish Enlightenment's cultural impact on the

kingdom of New Spain (Mexico), the crown established the
Academy of San Carlos in 1785 to train painters, sculptors, and
architects in New Spain, under the direction of the peninsular
Gerónimo Antonio Gil.[22] The academy emphasized
neoclassicism, which drew on the inspiration of the clean lines of
Greek and Roman architecture, but also, for some monuments, from
the Aztec and Mayan architectural traditions.[23]
The Museo Nacional de Arte with the
Neoclassicism in Mexican architecture was directly linked to crown equestrian statue in forefront.
policies that sought to rein in the exuberance of the Mexican
Baroque, and to create public buildings of "good taste" funded by
the crown, such as the Palacio de Minería in Mexico City, the Hospicio Cabañas in Guadalajara, and the
Alhóndiga de Granaditas in Guanajuato, all built in the late colonial era.[24]
The late neoclassical The Palacio de Minería, The Teatro Degollado in
Palacio de Bellas Artes in built between 1797 and Guadalajara, Jalisco built
the capital of Mexico City 1813 by the Spanish- during the Second Mexican
Mexican architect Manuel Empire in the 1860s.
Tolsá[25]

The Monument to The Palacio del Marqués The drawings for the
Cuauhtémoc, built in del Apartado in Mexico City, unfinished Palacio
Mexico City in 1887, in the built 1795–1805 also by Legislativo Federal by
neoclassical Manuel Tolsá Henri Jean Émile Bénard
(neoindigenismo) style
dedicated to the last Aztec
ruler of Tenochtitlan.
 San José Iturbide parish, Hospicio Cabañas The Palacio de Gobierno
built in 1866 by Ramón (Guadalajara), built (Nuevo León)
Ramírez y Arangoiti [26] between 1805–1845, is one
of the oldest and largest
hospital complexes in the
Americas.

The courtyard of the Museo

Nacional de Arte

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

The centre of Polish Neoclassicism was Warsaw under the rule

of the last Polish king, Stanislaus Augustus. The University of
Vilnius was another important centre of the Neoclassical
architecture in Europe, led by the notable professors of
architecture Marcin Knackfus, Laurynas Gucevicius and Karol
Podczaszyński. The style was expressed in the shape of main
public buildings, such as the University's Observatory, Vilnius
Cathedral and the town hall.
St. Anne's Church, Warsaw
The best-known architects and artists, who worked in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were Dominik
Merlini, Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer, Szymon Bogumił Zug, Jakub Kubicki, Antonio Corazzi, Efraim Szreger,
Chrystian Piotr Aigner and Bertel Thorvaldsen.

Russia

In the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century, neoclassical architecture was equal to Saint Petersburg
architecture because this style was specific for a huge number of buildings in the city. Catherine the Great
adopted the style during her reign by allowing the architect Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe to build the
Old Hermitage and the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg.[2]

Spain

Spanish Neoclassicism was exemplified by the work of Juan de

Villanueva, who adapted Burke's theories of beauty and the sublime
to the requirements of Spanish climate and history. He built the
Museo del Prado, which combined three functions: an academy, an
auditorium, and a museum in one building with three separate
entrances.

This was part of the ambitious program of Charles III, who

intended to make Madrid the Capital of the Arts and Sciences. Very
The Museo del Prado in Madrid, by
close to the museum, Villanueva built the Royal Observatory of
Juan de Villanueva
Madrid. He also designed several summer houses for the kings in El
Escorial and Aranjuez and reconstructed the Plaza Mayor, Madrid,
among other important works. Villanueva's pupils expanded the Neoclassical style in Spain.

Germany

Neoclassical architecture became a symbol of national pride during

the 18th century in Germany, in what was then Prussia. Karl
Friedrich Schinkel built many notable buildings in this style,
including the Altes Museum in Berlin. While the city remained
dominated by Baroque city planning, his architecture and functional
style provided the city with a distinctly neoclassical center. Altes Museum in Berlin (finished in
1830)
Schinkel's work is very comparable to Neoclassical architecture in
Britain since he drew much of his inspiration from that country. He
made trips to observe the buildings and develop his functional style.[2]

United States

In the new republic, Robert Adam's neoclassical manner was adapted for the local late 18th- and early 19th-
century style, called Federal architecture. One of the pioneers of this style was the English-born Benjamin
Henry Latrobe, who is often noted as one of America's first formally trained professional architects and the
father of American architecture. The Baltimore Basilica, the first Roman Catholic cathedral in the United
States, is considered by many experts to be Latrobe's masterpiece.
Another notable American architect who identified with Federal architecture was Thomas Jefferson. He
built many neoclassical buildings including his personal estate Monticello, the Virginia State Capitol, and
the University of Virginia.[2]

A second neoclassical manner found in the United States during the 19th century was called Greek Revival
architecture. It differs from Federal architecture as it strictly follows the Greek idiom, however it was used
to describe all buildings of the Neoclassicism period that display classical orders.[27]

The University of Virginia Butler Library at Columbia The United States Capitol
Rotunda, an example of the University in New York City (finished in 1800)
Neoclassical architecture (finished in 1934)
Thomas Jefferson built on
campus.

Federal Hall National Jefferson Memorial in The north and south sides
Memorial Washington D.C (1939- of the White House
1943) (completed in 1800)

Rest of Latin America

The Neoclassical style arrived in the American empires of Spain and Portugal through projects designed in
Europe or carried out locally by European or Criollo architects trained in the academies of the metropolis.
There are also examples of the adaptation to the local architectural language, which during previous
centuries had made a synthesis or syncretism of European and pre-Columbian elements in the so-called
Colonial Baroque.
Two more Classical criteria belong, in Chile, the Palacio de La Moneda (1784–1805) and the Metropolitan
Cathedral of Santiago (1748–1899), both works by the Italian architect Joaquín Toesca. In Ecuador, the
Quito's Palacio de Carondelet (Ecuador's Government Palace) built between 1611–1801 by Antonio
García. At the dawn of the independence of Hispanic America, constructive programs were developed in
the new republics. Neoclassicism was introduced in New Granada by Marcelino Pérez de Arroyo. Later, in
Colombia, the Capitolio Nacional was built in Bogotá between 1848–1926 by Thomas Reed, trained at the
Berlin Bauakademie; the Primatial Cathedral of Bogotá (1807–1823), designed by Friar Domingo de
Petrés; and in Peru the Basilica Cathedral of Arequipa built between 1540–1844 by Lucas Poblete.

Brazil, which became the seat of the court of the Portuguese monarchy, gaining independence from its
metropolis as the Empire of Brazil, also used the resources of architecture for the glorification of political
power, and it was decided to resort to architects trained in the Académie royale d'architecture. To this period
belong the portal of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro made in 1826 and the Imperial
Palace of Petrópolis built between 1845–1862.

Argentina is another of the countries that seeks to shed its colonial past, but in the context of the
reorganization of the country after independence in 1810, an aspect of power is sought that transmits the
presence of the State, inspiring respect and devotion, including of course the architecture. However, an
image of its own is not conceived, but the Classical canon is introduced, not in the form of a replica of
buildings from Antiquity, but with a classical predominance and a lot of influence from French Classicism;
which will last until the 20th century.
Palacio de La Moneda from Metropolitan Cathedral of Palacio de Carondelet
Santiago de Chile (1784- Santiago (Chile) (1748- (Quito, Ecuador) built
1805) by Joaquín Toesca 1906) by Joaquín Toesca between (1611–1801 by
and Ignacio Cremonesi Antonio García)

Capitolio Nacional (Bogotá, Primatial Cathedral of Basilica Cathedral of

Colombia) (1848–1926 by Bogotá (Colombia) (1807– Arequipa (Peru) (1540–
Thomas Reed) 1823 by Friar Domingo de 1844 by Lucas Poblete)
Petrés)
 Palace of Justice (Lima, Palácio Imperial de Palacio del Congreso de
Peru) (1939 by Bruno Petrópolis (Brazil) (1845– Nación Argentina (1896–
Paprowsky) 1862 by Julius Friedrich 1906 by Vittorio Meano)
Koeler)

El Capitolio (Havana,
Cuba) (1926–1929 by
Eugenio Rayneri Piedra)

Philippines

Like most western tradition, it arrived in the Pacific Archipelagos via rule from New Spain (Mexico) during
the period of governance by Mexico City as one of the best preferred architecture in the Spanish east indies,
manifested in Churches, Civic buildings and one of the popular architectural ornament for newer styled
Bahay na bato and Bahay kubo. When the power over the archipelago was transferred from Spain to the
United States of America, the style became more popular and developed from slightly simple approach
during the Spanish era, to a more ornamented style of the Beaux-Arts architecture sparked by the return of
massive number of architectural students to the islands from the western schools. It also became a symbol
of democracy and the approaching republic during the commonwealth.
San Bartolome Church National Museum of Cebu Provincial Capitol
(Malabon) Natural History (Manila)

See also
Architecture
portal

New classical architecture

Neoclassical architecture in Milan
Outline of classical architecture
Federal architecture
Nordic Classicism
John Carr (architect)
William Chambers (architect)
List of architectural styles

References
1. "Neoclassical architecture" (https://www.britannica.com/art/Neoclassical-architecture).
Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
2. Middleton, Robin. (1993). Neoclassical and 19th century architecture. Electa. ISBN 0-8478-
0850-5. OCLC 444534819 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/444534819).
3. See, for instance, Joseph Rykwert, The First Moderns: the architects of the eighteenth
century (Cambridge, MIT Press: 1980) and Alberto Perez Gomez, Architecture and the Crisis
of Modern Science, (Cambridge, MIT Press: 1983)
4. "Andrea Palladio 1508–1580" (https://iarc.ie/exhibitions/previous-exhibitions/andrea-palladi
o-1508-1580/). Irish Architectural Archive. 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
5. Barry Bergdoll, Ed., The Complete Works of Percier and Fontaine, (New York, Princeton
Architectural Press: 2018)
6. "Neoclassical Architecture (1640–1850)" (http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/neocl
assical-architecture.htm). www.visual-arts-cork.com. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
7. Honour, 110–111, 110 quoted
8. Though Giles Worsley detects the first Grecian influenced architectural element in the
windows of Nuneham Park from 1756, see Giles Worsley, "The First Greek Revival
Architecture", The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 127, No. 985 (April 1985), pp. 226–229.
 9. Joseph Mordant Crook, The Greek Revival: neoclassical attitudes in British architecture,
1760–1870 (London, John Murray: 1972)
10. Honour, 171–184, 171 quoted
11. Robin Middleton and David Watkin, NeoClassical and Nineteenth Century Architecture2
vols. (New York, Electa/Rizzoli: 1987)
12. Francis Chia-Hui Lin (9 January 2015). Heteroglossic Asia: The Transformation of Urban
Taiwan (https://books.google.com/books?id=BYIcBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT85). Taylor & Francis.
pp. 85–. ISBN 978-1-317-62637-4.
13. Yukiko Koga (28 November 2016). Inheritance of Loss: China, Japan, and the Political
Economy of Redemption after Empire (https://books.google.com/books?id=ohs_DQAAQBAJ
&pg=PA290). University of Chicago Press. pp. 290–. ISBN 978-0-226-41227-6.
帝冠様式について
14. Satō, Yoshiaki (2006). "Chapter 5 Appendix: " [About Imperial Crown
神奈川県庁本庁舎と大正昭和初期の神奈川県技術者に関する建築史的研究
Style].
[Architecture Historical Research of the Kanagawa Prefecture Main Office Building and the
early Taishō Shōwa Kanagawa Prefecture Engineers] (in Japanese).
15. Morohashi, Kaz (Winter 2015). "Museums in Japan" (http://sainsbury-institute.org/support-us/
e-magazine-issue-10/museums-in-japan/). e-magazine. Norwich,UK: Sainsbury Institute for
the Study of Japanese Arts and Culture. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
16. "Bibliotheca" (https://web.archive.org/web/20151206112815/http://www.culturalheritage.gov.
mt/filebank/inventory/01141.pdf) (PDF). National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the
Maltese Islands. 28 December 2012. Archived from the original (http://www.culturalheritage.
gov.mt/filebank/inventory/01141.pdf) (PDF) on 6 December 2015.
17. "Rohan Gate, Żebbuġ" (https://web.archive.org/web/20151204152202/http://www.timesofmal
ta.com/articles/view/20121211/environment/Rohan-Gate-ebbu-.449132). Times of Malta. 11
December 2012. Archived from the original (https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/201
21211/environment/Rohan-Gate-ebbu-.449132) on 4 December 2015.
18. Bötig, Klaus (2011). Malta, Gozo. Con atlante stradale (https://books.google.com/books?id=
DJRt65t6jpgC&pg=PA54) (in Italian). EDT srl. p. 54. ISBN 9788860407818.
19. "Architecture in Malta under the British" (https://web.archive.org/web/20151007210825/http://
www.culturemalta.org/48/10/Architecture-in-Malta-under-the-British). culturemalta.org.
Archived from the original (http://www.culturemalta.org/48/10/Architecture-in-Malta-under-the
-British) on 7 October 2015.
20. "Domvs Romana" (https://web.archive.org/web/20150105055519/http://heritagemalta.org/mu
seums-sites/domvs-romana/). Heritage Malta. Archived from the original (http://heritagemalt
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22. Jean Charlot, Mexican Art and the Academy of San Carlos, 1785–1915. Austin: University of
Texas Press 1962, p. 25
23. https://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article/54/3/525/151178/Los-origenes-del-nacionalismo-
mexicano
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25. "Museo Manuel Tolsá - Palacio de Minería de la FI UNAM" (http://museu.ms/museum/detail
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26. "Datos curiosos de la Parroquia de San José Iturbide" (https://iturbide.travel/datos-curiosos-
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27. Pierson, William Harvey (1976). American buildings and their architects. Anchor
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Further reading
Détournelle, Athanase, Recueil d'architecture nouvelle, A Paris : Chez l'auteur, 1805
Groth, Håkan, Neoclassicism in the North: Swedish Furniture and Interiors, 1770–1850
Honour, Hugh, Neoclassicism
Irwin, David, Neoclassicism (in series Art and Ideas) Phaidon, paperback, 1997
Lorentz, Stanislaw, Neoclassicism in Poland (Series History of art in Poland)
McCormick, Thomas, Charles-Louis Clérisseau and the Genesis of Neoclassicism
Architectural History Foundation, 1991
Praz, Mario. On Neoclassicism

External links
Institute of Classical Architecture and Art (http://www.classicist.org) (official website)
Traditional Architecture Group (https://web.archive.org/web/20130609040947/http://www.trad
itionalarchitecture.co.uk/index.html) (archived 9 June 2013)
OpenSource Classicism (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCco_r00ZJQ_46P5GPYguIvA/
videos) – project for free educational content about neoclassical architecture

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