The Rotunda at the University of Virginia

Jefferson wanted a library at the center of his university, not a church. That choice — radical for its time — became the Rotunda. He modeled it after the Pantheon in Rome, working from Palladio's architectural drawings, scaling the proportions down to half the diameter. Enslaved laborers built it. Construction finished shortly after Jefferson's death in 1826.

In 1895, fire gutted the building — likely faulty electrical wiring in an annex that had been added for classroom space. Students ran in and saved what mattered: a life-size marble statue of Jefferson, books from the Dome Room, scientific instruments. Architect Stanford White rebuilt the interior with two floors where Jefferson had designed three, and replaced the wooden dome with fireproof tile.

During renovations completed in 2016, workers found a nineteenth-century chemistry laboratory hidden inside the walls — a chemical hearth, brick ventilation tunnels — sealed up and forgotten.

The building shares UNESCO World Heritage designation with Monticello. Go inside. The Dome Room is where the Marquis de Lafayette once toasted Jefferson as the father of this university, and Jefferson thought enough of the phrase to put it on his grave.