Modeled on the Pantheon in Rome, the Rotunda rises above you as the domed heart of The Lawn on the original grounds of the University of Virginia. Thomas Jefferson designed it to represent the "authority of nature and power of reason" and modeled it after the Pantheon in Rome. Construction began in 1822 and was completed shortly after Jefferson's death in 1826, its principal function conceived as a library rather than a chapel. That choice made this campus singular: its buildings surround a library, not a church, and many see the Rotunda as a symbol of Jefferson's belief in separation of church and education and of his lifelong devotion to education and architecture.
Walk around and you can feel the deliberate fusion of classical form and civic purpose that Jefferson intended. In 1966 the Rotunda was designated a National Historic Landmark, and in 1971 it became part of the University of Virginia Historic District. More broadly, this collegiate core, the immediate surroundings, and Jefferson's nearby home at Monticello together form one of only six modern man-made sites in the United States protected and preserved as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Notice the Lawn spreading out, and Jefferson's nearby home at Monticello beyond it.