page_title: The Rotunda (University of Virginia)
section_title: Design and construction
hierarchical_section_title: The Rotunda (University of Virginia) / History / Design and construction
caption_attribution_description: Thomas Jefferson's design of the "Rotunda", the library at the heart of the University of Virginia. "South Elevation of the Rotunda, begun 1818, completed March 29, 1819. Ink and pencil drawing." (according to [www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/object.html Library of Congress])
context_page_description: The Rotunda is a building located on The Lawn on the original grounds of the University of Virginia. It was designed by Thomas Jefferson to represent the "authority of nature and power of reason" and was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. Construction began in 1822 and was completed shortly after Jefferson's death in 1826. The grounds of the new university were unique in that they surrounded a library housed in the Rotunda rather than a church, as was common at other universities in the English-speaking world. The Rotunda is seen as a lasting symbol of Jefferson's belief in the separation of church and education, as well as his lifelong dedication to both education and architecture. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966, and is part of the landmark University of Virginia Historic District, designated in 1971.
  The collegiate structure, the immediate area around it, and Jefferson's nearby home at Monticello combine to form one of only four modern man-made sites in the United States to be internationally protected and preserved as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
  The original construction cost of the Rotunda was $57,773.
context_section_description: During the Marquis de Lafayette's grand tour of the United States in 1824 and 1825, the Marquis and former President James Madison dined with Thomas Jefferson in the Dome Room of the unfinished Rotunda at the University's inaugural banquet, and Lafayette toasted Jefferson as the "Father of the University of Virginia". This moved Jefferson, and he later had the phrase inscribed on his grave. A bust of Lafayette was given to the University in 1904 by the Government of France to honor the friendship between the two men. Today it stands in the North Oval Room.
  The building was constructed with slave labor.
  The University being the first at which students could specialize in the field of Astronomy, Jefferson toyed with the idea of painting the interior of the Dome Room with images of the night sky to aid the students in their learning. He went so far as to begin designing a new mechanism with which students would be able to "float" through the air and study heavenly bodies from closer different viewpoints. They would also be equipped with a control to move the stars around the Dome. The idea was eventually abandoned but would have been the first planetarium in the United States. The Transit of Venus of 1882 was observed from the steps of the Rotunda, in a coordinated effort with McCormick Observatory.
caption: 1819 draft of the Rotunda
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