Baroque

The Baroque is one of Europe’s most distinctive and recognizable style periods. It is characterized by drama, contrasts, rich colors, and strong emotional expression. The word comes from Portuguese and means “irregular or imperfect pearl” – a fitting label for a style that broke with the strict symmetry and rational clarity of the Renaissance, while also developing its classical language further. Where Renaissance architects sought calm, order, and clarity, Baroque architects strove to create movement, drama, and emotional intensity, often through striking perspectival effects.

The style arose in Italy in the early 1600s, partly inspired by Michelangelo’s late works, and then developed with variations across Europe. From the beginning, Baroque architecture was tied to two centers of power: the Catholic Church and the absolutist courts of Europe. Both used architecture and urban spaces to persuade, impress, and stage authority.

The Baroque vocabulary – movement and drama

Baroque architecture sought to create movement and evoke powerful sensory impressions. It is dramatic and rich in detail. The flat surfaces and straight lines of the Renaissance were replaced by curved, flowing forms, convex and concave walls, and alternating projections and recesses. Facades could still be symmetrical but were animated with shifting shapes and play of light. Typical features included continuous pilasters, heavy cornices, hipped roofs, patterned brickwork, and emphasized window and wall sections.

Columns often stretched across multiple stories and were more massive than before. Instead of being embedded as half-columns, they stood free as full columns, engaging more of the surrounding space. Large decorative volutes – spiral ornaments – marked the transitions between columns, cornices, and roof structures.

The overall composition remained symmetrical, but symmetry was often broken by striking contrasts. A recess on one side of the central axis might be balanced by a projection on the other. Light and shadow became tools: a darkened room could suddenly be illuminated by a strategically placed window, while the facade’s protrusions and recesses cast shifting shadows throughout the day.

Many buildings functioned as total works of art, integrating architecture, sculpture, painting, and furnishings into a single whole. Illusionistic techniques were popular: if a dome could not be built, it could be painted in perspective, so the ceiling seemed to open toward the heavens. This interplay of form, color, light, and surprise created a sensory bombardment designed to seduce and persuade.

The church as stage – Catholic Baroque in Rome

In the 1500s, the Reformation challenged the Catholic Church. Protestantism spread rapidly, and Rome feared a dramatic loss of power. To regain its authority, the papacy turned to art and architecture as persuasive instruments. Churches had to reclaim their authority and attract the faithful.

This strategy became visible in Rome’s urban fabric. Monumental churches and squares were built to impress through scale and decoration. St. Peter’s Basilica and the vast St. Peter’s Square in front of it are among the most striking examples. The colonnades embrace visitors like enormous arms, leading them toward the church interior.

Urban planning also took on a theatrical character. Narrow alleys could suddenly open onto grand squares, and broad avenues were laid out to direct the gaze toward a church or other central building. These spaces acted as stages for daily life, full of surprises and shifting perspectives that reinforced the Baroque sense of drama.

Royal architecture – absolutism in Europe

In the 1600s, absolutism was introduced in several European states. This concentrated all power in the king’s hands, and architecture became a central tool to display and legitimize his rule.

France is where Baroque architecture was most deliberately used for royal self-presentation. Versailles, built for the Sun King Louis XIV, is one of the most famous Baroque works. The entire complex is organized along axes radiating from the king’s bedroom – both symbolically and practically, since the first rays of the sun entered through its windows.

The gardens of Versailles reinforced the message. Long straight lines and pathways extend toward the horizon, a visual symbol of the king’s limitless authority. The palace and gardens became a model for many European complexes of the period.

Baroque in Denmark takes shape

In Denmark, Baroque architecture became prominent only after the introduction of absolutism in 1660. As elsewhere, it was used as an instrument of power.

Absolutism gathered all state construction under one central office – the post of royal master builder – which held both practical and artistic responsibility. The first to hold the office, Lambert van Haven, was appointed in 1671 and was also the royal court painter. The position ensured that international influences reached Denmark quickly, partly through study trips for young architects.

The development began in the king’s Copenhagen. New streets and squares were laid out, and monumental buildings left a strong mark. Among the first major works were Charlottenborg, designed by the Dutchman Ewert Janssen in the 1670s, and Our Savior’s Church, designed by van Haven himself.

Many influences came through the Netherlands, where Baroque expression was more restrained than in Italy. In Denmark, this was combined with Renaissance classical forms and Baroque theatrical effects. Buildings remained monumental and symmetrical, but with less ostentatious decoration and often simpler materials. The result was a distinct variant that preserved the Baroque vocabulary in a more tempered form.

The Baroque imprint on town and countryside

Baroque influence was not limited to palaces and churches. Ordinary houses changed as well, and the Copenhagen Fire of 1728 played a decisive role.

Large parts of the city had to be rebuilt. The so-called Fire Houses emerged, recognizable especially by their prominent gabled dormers. For fire safety, street facades had to be of solid masonry, while rear facades and side buildings could still be timber-framed. Later, these rules were relaxed because many could not afford compliance. Today, examples of Fire Houses can still be seen at Gråbrødretorv.

In the countryside, medieval defensive features disappeared almost entirely from manor houses and castles. Throughout Denmark, inspiration clearly came from Copenhagen’s trends. The manor houses built in this period differed greatly from those of the Renaissance. Rooms became larger and brighter thanks to big windows in the walls.

Defense was no longer the priority, though old moats were often kept. These now symbolized the distance between lord and commoner, and also helped create artistic unity between house, garden, and landscape. Many well-preserved Baroque manor houses still exist – Nysø on South Zealand is a prime example.

The legacy of the Baroque

From Rome’s squares and St. Peter’s to the axes of Versailles and the elegance of Danish palaces and manors, the Baroque demonstrates how architecture could communicate power, faith, and status.

In Denmark, the period left a lasting imprint on both town and countryside. Although it ended stylistically around the mid-1700s, its vocabulary lives on in restorations and new buildings that borrow from its dramatic effects. The Baroque reminds us that architecture is not just a physical frame but also a statement of power formulated in stone, light, and shadow.