Neoclassicism

Straight, pure and antique: temple fronts, columns and white surfaces in the spirit of the Enlightenment.

Around 1750 architects turned against the excesses of the Baroque and Rococo. The excavations at Pompeii and journeys to Greece gave a new picture of antiquity as simple and noble. The result was straight lines, pure volumes and temple fronts on museums, churches and gateways.

The Enlightenment sought to replace superstition with reason, and Baroque extravagance came to seem a sign of absolutist waste. Antiquity became the model for the good state, and the new interest in archaeology made copies more accurate. Neoclassicism was used by revolutionaries, by Napoleon and by the new American republic, and in Sweden by Gustav III.

In Sweden Neoclassicism is often called the Gustavian style, after Gustav III. Haga, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and many rural churches of the 18th and 19th centuries with white gables and temple fronts belong here.