These Are 21 of the Most Influential Neoclassical Buildings in the World

Designed by Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington, and completed in 1729, Chiswick House in west London is one of the finest surviving examples of Palladian-inspired architecture. With the design of his home, Lord Burlington sought to re-create an authentic Roman villa. Geometry and proportion reign supreme here, with use of the octagon, circle, and rectangle in its floor plan. The steeply pitched dome was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.

Having opened in 1737, the Teatro Reale di San Carlo is the oldest continuously active opera house in the world. It was commissioned by the Bourbon King Charles III of Naples and designed by Giovanni Antonio Medrano, a military architect, and Angelo Carasale, the former director of the San Bartolomeo. The horseshoe-shaped auditorium's interior is adorned with neoclassical motifs, including bas relief sculptures throughout. The facade is heavily rusticated on the ground level and features an Ionic colonnade on the second level.

Although a house has stood on this property since the early 17th century, Kenwood House did not become an iconic neoclassical work until Robert Adam was hired by the Earl of Mansfield, William Murry, to remodel it in 1764. Adam added the library, designed the Ionic portico at the entrance, and modernized the interiors.

This neoclassical villa was built in 1776 by architect Giuseppe Piermarini in a neoclassical style in the northern Italian town of Desio. The façade, which features Corinthian pilasters and roof statuary, was added in the 1840s by architect Pelagio Palagi. Today, the villa is home to a library and museum named after Giuseppe Scalvini.

Commissioned by King Louis XV, who intended for it to be a church dedicated to Saint Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, and designed by architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot, this Latin Quarter monument was built between 1758 and 1790.

In 1791, during the French Revolution, the French National Assembly voted to transform the Church of Saint Genevieve into a mausoleum for the remains of distinguished French citizens modeled after the Roman Pantheon, which had been used for such since the 16th century. The Pantheon's dome, which features neoclassical coffers, is constructed of stone; its facade and peristyle, modeled after a Greek temple and featuring Corinthian columns and sculpture by David d'Angers, were completed in 1837.

Among those buried in its necropolis are Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Jean Moulin, Louis Braille, Jean Jaurès, and Soufflot.

Designed in 1785 by Spanish architect Juan de Villanueva, the Prado museum in Madrid houses one of the world's greatest art collections, including works by Francisco Goya, El Greco, Peter Paul Rubens, Titian, and Diego Velázquez. Doric columns support a large portico on the main wing, which also features large relief sculpture and statuary displayed in niches.

One of six presidential palaces in Indonesia, this neoclassical masterpiece is located in the West Java town of Bogor. Construction of the mansion, which was originally a country retreat for the Dutch governors during Indonesia's colonial period, began in the 18th century; the building has been modified many times in the ensuing centuries, including with the addition of the front portico in the 1950s following Indonesian independence.

The White House has been the residence of every American president since John Adams. Known then as "the President's House," it was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the neoclassical style and modeled after Leinster House in Dublin (which houses the Irish legislature) with classical influences from Vitruvius and Andrea Palladio. Construction took place between 1792 and 1800 and was largely carried out by enslaved and freed African Americans.

Since John Adams moved in in 1800, it has been modified, rebuilt, and enlarged many times. Thomas Jefferson and architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe added low colonnades on each wing that concealed stables and storage. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army. Reconstruction began almost immediately; the semicircular south portico was added in 1824 and the north portico in 1829. Other additions and modifications include the addition of the West Wing and Oval Office and the expansion of the East Wing. President Roosevelt gave the White House its current name in 1901.

After a heated design competition, construction on the Capitol building began in 1793. And while it has been burned, rebuilt, and expanded since its original incarnation, the building's neoclassical style—inspired by buildings in ancient Greece and Rome and intended to evoke ideals that guided the nations founders as they framed their new republic—has remained consistent.

The building's iconic dome, designed by Thomas U. Walter and constructed from 1856 to 1866, is made of cast iron and features columns, pilasters, brackets, windows, and a crowning statue. It replaced a smaller wooden dome that had been the design of architect Charles Bulfinch.

Although it did not become the official London residence of the British monarchy until Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837, the house at the core of Buckingham Palace was built in 1703. Architects John Nash and Edward Blore greatly enlarged the palace with the addition of three wings surrounding a central courtyard during the 1820s and 1830s.

The east wing, which encloses the palace courtyard and is the public facade of the palace, was completed in 1850 and remodeled to its current form—with the addition of three pediments, Corinthian pilasters, and columns, and rusticated masonry on the ground level—in 1913.

Modeled after the proportions of the second century Pantheon in Rome, the Rotunda on the lawn at the University of Virginia was designed by Thomas Jefferson to represent "the authority of nature and the power of reason." Construction began in 1822 and was completed in 1826, after Jefferson died; it was constructed by the labors of enslaved people. The structure, which features Corinthian columns supporting the portico, also reflects Palladio's influence over Jefferson.

Designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel under King Friedrich Wilhelm III and inuagurated in 1830, the Altes (or old) Museum is one of the finest examples of neoclassical architecture in Germany and is the oldest museum in Berlin. Behind that dramatic colonnade of the Ionic order is house, perhaps appropriately so, a collection of classical antiquities.

The main building of the Academy of Athens was designed as part of an architectural "trilogy" in 1859 by the Danish architect Theophil Hansen, along with the University and the National Library. Construction began in 1859 but the building was not completed until 1885. Greek sculptor Leonidas Drosis sculpted the multi-figure pediment sculpture and the figures of Athena and Apollo on the pair of pillars flanking the Academy's portico.

This neoclassical domed masoleum in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan is the final resting place of General Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States, and his wife, Julia. Designed by John Hemenway Duncan and completed in 1897, the tomb's granite exterior is modeled after the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. It is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday and has been under the management of the National Park Service since 1958.

Commonly known as the Egyptian Museum or the Museum of Cairo, this edifice is home to an extensive collection of antiquities, with more than 120,o00 items and the world's largest collection of Pharaonic pieces. This neoclassical building was designed by French architect Marcel Dourgnon and built by Italian construction company Garozzo-Zaffarani in 1901; construction is underway for a new building to house the Grand Egyptian Museum, set to open to the public in 2021.

Designed by French-born architect Gaston Lelarge and Julián Lombana and dedicated in 1908, Casa de Narino is the official home and workplace of the President of Colombia. Featuring a facade covered in carved stone and a portico supported by doubling of columns in the Ionic order, design of the early-20th-century renovation of a much older palace in the same place was intended to convey strength and power.

Designed by Vertner Woodson Tandy and built between 1916 and 1918, Villa Lewaro was the Irvington-on-Hudson, NY, home of Madam C.J. Walker, a self-made millionaire who amassed her fortune from the line of cosmetics and hair-care products she developed for Black women. The home features an elegant portico and balustrade supported by Ionic columns. In 2018, the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced the building had been purchased by the New Voices Foundation, which helps women of color entrepreneurs achieve their visions through innovative leadership initiatives.

One of the most visited buildings in Havana, the National Capitol Building was designed by Eugenio Rayneri Piedra and built between 1926 and 1929. The cupola, which features stone cladding around a steel frame, was inspired by that of the Pantheon in Paris.