The Architecture of Rome

http://www.renaud-bray.com

http://www.renaud-bray.com

Dies ist die dritte, erweiterte und überarbeitete Auflage des Rom-Reiseführers. Neu ist der QR-Code auf der Rückseite, der zu Google Maps von Rom führt und alle besprochenen Sehenswürdigkeiten anzeigt. Neben präzisen Standortinformationen erleichtert diese Funktion die Routenplanung und bietet zusätzliche, aktuelle Informationen wieÖffnungszeiten, Eintrittspreise usw.Architects and artists have always acknowledged over the cen-turies that Rome is rightly called the »eternal city«. Rome is eternalabove all because it was always young, always »in its prime«. Herethe buildings that defined the West appeared over more than 2000years, here the history of European architecture was written.The foundations were laid even in ancient Roman times, whenthe first attempts were made to design interiors and thus makespace open to experience as something physical. And at that timethe Roman architects also started to develop building types thatare still valid today, thus creating the cornerstone of later Westernarchitecture. In it Rome’s primacy remained unbroken – whetherit was with old St. Peter’s as the first medieval basilica or newSt. Peter’s as the building in which Bramante and Michelangelodeveloped the High Renaissance, or with works by Bernini andBorromini whose rich and lucid spatial forms were to shape Ba-roque as far as Vienna, Bohemia and Lower Franconia. WhenLouis Kahn, one of the greats of 20th-century architecture, confes-sed: »My mind is full of Roman greatness«, this no longer appliesonly to those times. For three decades, absolutely central buildingshave been emerging again in the eternal city. From museums tosacred buildings to large music and event centers: Rome todayhas true landmarks of the present day – from Renzo Piano to JeanNouvel and Zaha Hadid.All this is comprehensible only if it is presented historically, i. e.in chronological sequence, and therefore the guide has not beenarranged topographically as usual but chronologically. This meansthat one is not led in random sequence from a Baroque building toan ancient or a modern one, but the historical development is fol-lowed successively. Every epoch is preceded by an introductionthat identifies its key features. This produces a continuous, lavish-ly illustrated history of the architecture of Rome – and thus at thesame time of the whole of the West. Practical handling is guaran-teed by an alphabetical index and detailed maps, whose informa-tion does not just immediately illustrate the historical picture, butalso makes it possible to choose a personal route through history.In order to clarify the historical development, the key buildings ofeach period and other major works are especially emphasizedboth in the text and on the maps.