La Rotunda, or villa Rotunda, as it is also known, was built by Adrea Palladio in 1561.  He died before it was completed, and so Vincenffarzo Scamozzi finished building it in 1571.  It is located on a small hill just outside the the city of Vicenza, Italy. 

      The building, which is considered a major classic of the Pantheonic type, gets its name because it was build completely symmetrical with a central circular hall.  It is positioned 45 degrees to the south on the top of the hill.  It has a square plan with loggias on all four sides.  The loggias, which more commonly knows as    , connect to terraces and the landscape.  Each loggia plays off the topography of the surrounding hill, such as the landscape and slope, allowing for variation in step length or retaining walls.

       At the center of the villa Rotunda, there is a two story circular hall with overlooking balconies, which was supposed to be topped with a  semicircular dome, but since Palladio died before completing the project, Vincenzo Scamozzi built a lower dome.  The dome he built was modeled after the Pantheon and was open to the sky.