1. Renaissance Architecture 1400 - 1600
Renaissance architects rejected the intricacy and verticality of the Gothic style for the simplicity and balanced proportions of classicism.

2. Features of Renaissance Buildings
  Renaissance architecture had some distinct features that were fairly common to major construction: Square - Many buildings were built as square or rectangle symmetrical shapes.
Front - The front or "façade" of the buildings were generally symmetrical around the vertical axis.
Columns - They used Roman type columns.
Arches and Domes - Arches and domes were popular. This was again taken from Roman and Greek architecture.
Ceilings - The ceilings of buildings were generally flat. Previously in the Middle Ages ceilings were often left open.

3. Palazzo (palace) in Florence, Italy
The Palazzo Pitti
Palazzo (palace) in Florence, Italy
The Palazzo Pitti, in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. The Palazzo Pitti was home to some of the most important Italian families including the Medici family. The Medicis supported famous artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Botticelli.

4. Basilica of St. Peter
This is perhaps the most famous building built during the Renaissance. Several architects worked on the design for the building including Michelangelo. It has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world and is considered by many to be the greatest Christian church building. It took 120 years to complete from 1506 to 1626.

5. Palazzo Farnese
Palazzo Farnese is one of the most important High Renaissance palaces in Rome.  Its building history involved some of the most prominent Italian architects of the 16th century, including Michelangelo, Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola and Giacomo della Porta.

6. El Escorial
Philip II, of Spain, engaged the Spanish architect, Juan Bautista de Toledo, to be his collaborator in the design of El Escorial. Juan Bautista had spent the greater part of his career in Rome, where he had worked on the basilica of St. Peter's, and inNaples, where he had served the king's viceroy, whose recommendation brought him to the king's attention. Philip appointed him architect-royal in 1559, and together they designed El Escorial as a monument to Spain's role as a center of the Christian world

7. Schloss Johannisburg
Schloss Johannisburg is one of the most important buildings of the Renaissance period in Germany. A schloss is a German word for a chateau, manor house or stately residence.

8. Kronberg Castle
Kronborg is a castle and stronghold in the town of Helsingør, Denmark. Immortalized as Elsinore in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Kronborg is one of the most important Renaissance castles in Northern Europe and has been added to UNESCO's World Heritage Sites list. The castle's story dates back to a fortress, Krogen (lit. "the Hook"), built in the 1420s by the Danish king, Eric of Pomerania.  From 1574 to 1585 Frederick II had the medieval fortress rebuilt into a magnificent Renaissance castle, unique in its appearance and size throughout Europe.