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The Rotunda is a building located on The Lawn on the original grounds of the University of Virginia. Thomas Jefferson designed it to represent the "authority of nature and power of reason" and modeled it after the Pantheon in Rome. Construction began in 1822 and was completed shortly after Jefferson's death in 1826.
The University of Virginia’s Rotunda has seemingly been a work-in-progress from the beginning. Designed by the University’s founder, Thomas Jefferson, the Rotunda is the centerpiece of the Academical Village.
The first library at the University of Virginia was the Rotunda. Rather than a chapel or other religious structure, the university was built around its own library. Thomas Jefferson was deeply engaged in selecting the materials that made up that library's original collection, and in developing the system by which it would be organized.
- Small suburb, 1,135 acres (459 ha)
- Cavalier
- 23,721 (Fall 2022)
- James E. Ryan
The Rotunda at the University of Virginia was designed by Thomas Jefferson as the architectural and academic heart of the University’s community of scholars. He named the University’s original buildings the “Academical Village.”
Rebuilt and fitted with new, fireproof materials, the Rotunda was rededicated in 1898. Even in the face of dramatic events like the fire, along with a series of additions, demolitions, and renovations, the Rotunda has played an outsized role in University life.
May 3, 2024 · ENTRY. University of Virginia, The Architecture of the. SUMMARY. As Thomas Jefferson ‘s last major contribution to American public life, the University of Virginia combined his deepest civic and personal passions: democracy, architecture, and the dissemination of knowledge.
