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Architectural style · c. 1550–1800

Palladian architecture

Palladianism

A temple front on a country villa. Andrea Palladio designed his villas in the Veneto countryside in the 16th century – and for three hundred years England, Ireland and America built from his book.

How to spot it Find it in the app

The style in timeDrag to travel in time

  1. Zigguratc. 2200–500 BC
  2. Ancient Greek architecturec. 700–30 BC
  3. Roman architecturec. 500 BC–AD 400
  4. Nabataean architecturec. 300 BC–AD 106
  5. Byzantine architecturec. 330–1453 in the Eastern Roman Empire
  6. Moorish architecture8th–15th century in al-Andalus and North Africa
  7. Carolingian architecturec. 780–900 in the Frankish Empire
  8. Novgorod and Pskovc. 1045–1600 in north-western Russia
  9. Norman architecturec. 1050–1200
  10. Romanesquec. 1050–1250
  11. Mudéjarc. 1100–1600
  12. Gothicc. 1235–1530
  13. Brick Gothicc. 1250–1530
  14. Late Gothicc. 1400–1530
  15. Manuelinec. 1490–1530
  16. Renaissancec. 1520–1650
  17. Palladian architecturec. 1550–1800
  18. Dutch Renaissancec. 1560–1650 in the Netherlands and Flanders
  19. Baroquec. 1640–1730
  20. Carolean Baroquec. 1680–1720
  21. Georgian architecture1714–1830
  22. Rocococ. 1730–1775
  23. Neoclassicismc. 1750–1850
  24. Gustavianc. 1772–1810
  25. Karl Johan stylec. 1810–1850
  26. Victorian architecture1837–1901
  27. Gothic Revivalc. 1840–1910
  28. Historicismc. 1840–1900
  29. Industrial architecturec. 1850–1950
  30. Neo-Renaissancec. 1850–1900
  31. Swiss chalet stylec. 1850–1900
  32. Landshövdingehus1875–1945
  33. Neo-Baroquec. 1880–1910
  34. Beaux-Artsc. 1830–1920
  35. National Romanticismc. 1890–1920
  36. Art Nouveauc. 1896–1914
  37. Art Decoc. 1910–1940
  38. 1910s Neoclassicismc. 1910–1920
  39. Bauhaus1919–1933
  40. Swedish Gracec. 1920–1930
  41. Functionalismc. 1930–1950
  42. Socialist classicismc. 1933–1955
  43. Post-war Swedish modernismc. 1940–1960
  44. Brutalismc. 1950–1975
  45. The Record Yearsc. 1955–1975
  46. The Million Programme1965–1974
  47. DeconstructivismFrom the 1980s
  48. Postmodernismc. 1980–1995
  49. LonghouseStone Age to Viking Age
  50. Log houseThe Middle Ages onwards
  51. Raised storehouseIron Age to 20th century
  52. Swedish vernacularc. 1600–1900
  53. Croft and cottagec. 1700–1900
  54. Decorated farmhouses of Hälsinglandc. 1700–1900
  55. Half-timberingThe Middle Ages to the 19th century
  56. Sámi goahtiFrom prehistory to the present day
  57. Seljuk architecturec. 1040–1300
  58. Persian architectureIran
  59. British Colonialc. 1700–1950 in the British Empire

01. A book that built the world

Andrea Palladio, born in Padua in 1508, designs villas, palaces and churches in Vicenza and the Venetian countryside. The Villa Rotonda, begun in 1566, is square with a temple front on all four sides and a dome in the middle. Everything rests on mathematical proportions taken from antiquity.

In 1570 he publishes I quattro libri dell'architettura, the Four Books of Architecture. It is the book that makes him immortal. In England Inigo Jones brings the ideas home: the Queen's House in Greenwich, begun in 1616, becomes the first Palladian house in England, and the Banqueting House in Whitehall is completed in 1622.

A hundred years later Palladio is the height of fashion. Colen Campbell publishes Vitruvius Britannicus, Lord Burlington builds Chiswick House in 1729, and country houses such as Holkham Hall rise. The style spreads to Ireland, where Edward Lovett Pearce designs the Parliament House in Dublin, and to America – Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and the White House, built 1792–1800, both bear Palladio's mark.

Towards the end of the 18th century Neoclassicism takes over, but the temple front in the countryside lives on.

02. How to spot it

  • 1.A temple front – a portico with columns and pediment
  • 2.Strict symmetry and mathematical proportions
  • 3.The Palladian window: an arched centre between two flat-topped side lights
  • 4.A main floor – piano nobile – raised above a base
  • 5.Lower wings stretching out on either side

03. The giveaway

The window. A three-part window with a tall arch in the middle and two lower, flat-topped side lights is called Palladian – or Venetian.

Read the façade

  1. Pediment
  2. Bull's-eye in the pediment
  3. The Palladian window

04. Architects and builders

  • Andrea Palladio
  • Inigo Jones
  • Lord Burlington
  • Colen Campbell
  • Edward Lovett Pearce
  • Thomas Jefferson

05. Where to see it

  • Villa Rotonda, Vicenzabegun 1566
  • The Queen's House, GreenwichInigo Jones, begun 1616
  • Chiswick House, LondonLord Burlington, 1729
  • Monticello, VirginiaThomas Jefferson
  • The White House, Washington1792–1800

06. Often confused with

Renaissance. Palladio was a Renaissance architect – but Palladianism is posterity's reading of him, in 17th- and 18th-century England. Georgian. The Georgian style builds on Palladianism and takes it into the towns.

Sources

  • Wikipedia (en): "Palladian architecture" (bygger bl.a. på Rudolf Wittkower: Palladio and English Palladianism, 1974, och John Summerson: Architecture in Britain 1530–1830, 1953)
  • UNESCO: "City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto"
  • Owen Hopkins: Reading Architecture – A Visual Lexicon, andra upplagan (Laurence King)

Text: Pontus Bovin · Last updated 9 November 2026

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