Classical architecture facts for kids

Sebastiano Serlio was the first person to write about the five main types of classical columns (Tuscan, Ionic, Doric, Corinthian, and Composite). This was very important for how people thought about architecture.

Classical architecture is a style of building that uses ideas from the ancient Greek and Roman ways of building. It's also called the architecture of classical antiquity. Many of its features come from the writings of a Roman architect named Vitruvius.

This style has been around for a long time. It might have started appearing again during the Carolingian Renaissance (around the 8th and 9th centuries). It definitely became popular again during the Italian Renaissance (around the 14th to 17th centuries).

Classical buildings can look very different from each other. But they all share common design features. These features are about how the building is built and how it looks.

In many parts of Europe and America, classical architecture was very important. This was true from the Renaissance until World War Two. It's still important today, but not as much as it used to be.

The term "classical architecture" can also describe any building style that has become very specific and traditional. For example, people talk about classical Chinese architecture or classical Mayan architecture.

The terms New Classical and Neoclassical describe classical architecture built in more modern times.

History of Classical Architecture
- Where and When Did It Start?
- How Classical Style Changed Over Time
How Widely Was It Used?
"Petrification" in Architecture
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History of Classical Architecture

Where and When Did It Start?

Classical architecture began with the buildings of ancient Greece and ancient Rome. After the western part of the Roman Empire fell, Roman building styles mostly stopped in western Europe.

However, during the Carolingian Renaissance in the 8th and 9th centuries, people started bringing back classical ideas. For example, the gatehouse of Lorsch Abbey (around 800 AD) in Germany looks a bit like the Colosseum in Rome. The Colosseum is a famous example of classical architecture.

Many building styles have some classical features. For instance, Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic architecture. But these styles don't try to exactly copy the old classical rules. For example, they don't always use the specific spacing between columns. Because of this, these styles are not usually called "classical architecture."

How Classical Style Changed Over Time

By the time the Italian Renaissance began, Gothic architecture was not used as much. Architects like Leon Battista Alberti, Sebastiano Serlio, and Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola wanted to bring back the ancient Roman building style.

They did this by reading a book called De architectura. This book was written by Vitruvius, a Roman architect. It had a lot of information about classical architecture and its features. These Renaissance architects also studied the old Roman buildings in Italy.

The classical architecture from the Renaissance shows that ancient ideas were used in a new, specific way. Some of the ideas they used weren't clearly from ancient buildings. For example, the Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence was built by Filippo Brunelleschi. It was finished in 1445 and is one of the first Renaissance buildings. But its columns don't look exactly like those in Roman architecture.

During the Renaissance, people learned about the theory of ancient building design. They didn't just copy every old building. This means classical architecture isn't exactly the same as the ancient buildings it was based on. It's a simpler version, and buildings made after the Renaissance often follow these simpler rules.

Most European architecture styles after the Renaissance are considered classical architecture. This is a general way of using the phrase. Sir John Summerson uses this general meaning in his book The Classical Language of Architecture. The features of classical architecture have been used differently in various styles. For example, Baroque (or Rococo) architecture is different from pure classical architecture. Baroque is based on classical ideas, but it has its own unique features.

Even when Baroque architecture was popular, students still learned classical ideas. But these ideas weren't as important as they were during the Renaissance.

Palladian architecture is another style based on classical architecture. It comes from the style of Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), an architect from Venice. His style remained important even after he died. In Britain, it was used for many important buildings in the 18th and 19th centuries. This style was often mixed with the Georgian architecture popular in Britain at the time.

Around 1750, architects started copying classical architecture very closely again. They did this because Baroque architecture only copied some parts of classical style. These new architects wanted buildings that used all the features of classical architecture. This new style was called Neoclassicism.

New discoveries in archaeology meant architects knew more about classical architecture than ever before. Architects wanted clear rules for building. Some early Neoclassical thinkers were Claude Perrault and Marc-Antoine Laugier. Important Neoclassical architects included Étienne-Louis Boullée, Claude Nicolas Ledoux, and John Soane.

Neoclassical architecture was very important from 1750 to 1850. At the same time, Neo-Gothic architecture was also becoming popular. Neo-Gothic was much less classical than Neoclassical. In the late 19th century, many different architecture styles were important. Many of them, like Art Nouveau, were not like classical architecture.

Classical architecture was still used. Sometimes it became very popular in certain areas. For example, Nordic Classicism was popular in the 1920s. But true classical architecture never became as popular as it was during the Renaissance.

When Modernism became popular in the early 20th century, classical architecture mostly stopped being used for new buildings.

How Widely Was It Used?

Classical styles were important in America and Europe for a very long time. From the Renaissance until Modernism began, classical architecture was a huge influence. This means the building styles of ancient Greece and Rome were used and changed into most new architecture styles.

Building styles can come from classical architecture in different ways. For example, Neo-Palladian architecture is based on buildings designed by Andrea Palladio. But Palladio based his architecture on ancient Roman buildings. So Neo-Palladian architecture is based on classical architecture, even if it's mostly inspired by Palladio's work.

Some styles, like Gothic, are not fully classical, but they still have some classical features. This makes it tricky to measure exactly how widely classical architecture was used.

The most important part of classical architecture is its features borrowed from ancient Greek and Roman buildings. It also includes the rules architects created by studying these ancient styles.

"Petrification" in Architecture

"Petrification" is a term used to describe how ancient Greek builders changed from using wood to using stone. It also shows how this change affected the classical architecture style.

During the Archaic and early Classical periods (6th and 5th centuries BC), early temples used a classical architecture style called Doric.

Most historians believe that the oldest temples were made of wood. Then, the most important features of these wooden buildings were used to design new buildings. This meant the style stayed the same, and all the buildings followed the same rules.

Later, in Greece, stone was used instead of wood. But they kept the same style. Because the style was "petrified" (meaning it became fixed like stone) and stayed the same, the word "petrification" is used to describe this.

The Greeks wanted their stone buildings to look the same as they did when they were made of wood. Historians think this might have had a religious reason. We don't know exactly why, because it was so long ago.

Many places still used wood for building. For example, the Etruscans in Italy. Even though the Etruscans adopted some Greek culture, they mostly kept using wood. The Etruscans knew how to use stone, but they didn't. They only started using stone when they became part of the Roman Empire.

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The very classical church front of Santa Maria Nova in Vicenza (1578–90) was designed by the famous Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio.
The Glyptothek in Munich, designed by Leo von Klenze and built 1816–30, is an example of Neoclassical architecture.
Croydon Airport in England, opened in 1920, was built in a Neoclassical style.