The History of Western Architecture: A Free Course Moving from Ancient Greece to Rococo

Image by Arild Vågen, via Wikimedia Commons

If you have plans to visit the Old World any time soon, you should spend a few good minutes — make that hours — with The History of Architecture, a free course that recently debuted on iTunes. Taught by Jacqueline Gargus at Ohio State, the course features 39 video lectures that collectively offer a classic survey of Western architecture. We begin in Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, laying the conceptual foundations for what’s to come. Then we dive headlong into Islamic, Byzantine and Medieval architecture, before spending a good deal of time with Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo styles. Of course, we encounter many great landmarks along the way: the pyramids of Egypt, the temples of Ancient Greece, the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, Chartres in France, Brunelleschi’s Duomo of Florence, and the list goes on.

The course appears on iTunes as well as YouTube. Find the lectures below.

The History of Architecture has been added to our collection, 1,500 Free Online Courses from Top Universities. And if/when Prof. Gargus posts a sequel that gets us into modern times, we’ll be sure to let you know.

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