Italy is justly renowned for many centuries and styles of stunning architecture. The style of architecture known as Italian was first developed by Filippo Bruneschelli, and flourished during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries; it was an assimilation of classical circular-arch form to modern requirements. In Rome it conformed most to ancient types; in Venice it assumed its most graceful form. It was more suitable to domestic than to ecclesiastical work; but the dome is an impressive feature, and St. Peter's a noble church. The architecture was synonymous with churches. A civil history, a political history, and a history of ideas are juxtaposed with a history of architecture.

Italian Renaissance architects based their theories and practices on Classical Roman examples. The Renaissance revival of Classical Rome was as eminent 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.

The Greeks and Etruscans

The Roman period

Early Christian and Byzanthine

Romanesque

The Gothic period

The early Renaissance

The High Renaissance and Mannerism

The Baroque

Neoclassicism

The twentieth century