Renaissance

The orders of antiquity rediscovered: symmetry, proportion and domes beneath a clear sky.

In 15th-century Florence architects began measuring ancient ruins and reading Vitruvius. The aim was harmony based on simple numerical ratios. Façades were given orders of columns, round arches and windows in regular rows, and the dome returned as the crown of the church.

Fifteenth-century Florence had money, banking families such as the Medici and strong civic pride. Humanists read the texts of antiquity and architects measured the ruins of Rome. Architecture was to be founded on reason and mathematics, not on tradition. Through printed books the ideas spread throughout Europe, but in the north they were long mixed with Gothic forms.

The Renaissance came to Sweden with Gustav Vasa and his sons. The castles of Vadstena, Kalmar and Gripsholm were given symmetrical courtyards, gables with volutes and portals in the Italian or Netherlandish manner.