Palladio's legacy and the Kentucky State Capitol

Palladio turned architecture on it's ear when he introduced the idea of creating a place of residence using the air of a religious institution. This idea of turning a building that had religious precedence and making it secular was a huge shift of societal ideals and is evident close to home when considering the Kentucky State Capitol.

Palladio borrowed from royal and orthodox structures prominent features such as columns and domes, that really signified to society a place of importance and rule over the general public. When looking at the Kentucky State Capital, we see the Romanesque columns and domes that were used primarily for religious structures in the more ancient world.

The buildings that emphasized these elements were doing so in terms of a higher power outside of the natural world. To take the symbolic nature of those buildings and use them for political institutions was showcasing to western society that a new rule was taking place. This was political power, more organized and more focused on the physical plane and not the astral. A sort of evolution of mankind coming into a state of logic and rationality birthed from religious viewpoints. These buildings that were spun out of those buildings stand as a sort of permission from the Gods to have his dominance over the lesser of the public.