Virginia State Capitol

Standing on Shockoe Hill in Richmond, this is one of the earliest examples of monumental neoclassical architecture in the United States. Thomas Jefferson designed it in the 1780s, modeling the temple form on the ancient Maison Carrée at Nîmes in France. The interior rotunda holds a life-size marble statue of George Washington by Jean-Antoine Houdon, sculpted from life. As the home of the oldest elected legislative body in the Western Hemisphere and briefly the Confederate capitol, it carries deep layers of American political history to explore.