S t o w e  G a r d e n s

T h e   R o t o n d o

Commissioned and built in 1721 by Sir John Vanbrugh, as an isolated, ornamental building for Lord Cobham, the Rotondo, or Rotunda stands on a mound in the centre of Home Park. It is probably the only survivor of a series of Vanbrugh's buildings at Stowe. It was intended to be the focal and vantage point of many walks, now long gone due to the inclusion of the independent Golf Course on which encroaches it. It is built in such a principal position, that it is glimpsed many times by the visitors, as they make their way around the gardens before finally approaching it, and allows commanding views of the surrounding, smoothed landscape.

The Rotondo after a long while of abscence, once again contains a copy of the original gilded statue of Venus, standing on a circular stylobate, the Goddess of Love and Patroness of the gardens. The shallow dome that crowns the building is a replacement of the original, more prominent and semi-spherical one, probably added around 1760 by Giovanni Borra, a continental architect, for Lord Temple. The 10 Ionic columns that support it are decorated at their tops with a pattern of leaves.

Below: Views over the Golf Course to the Temple of Venus, the Doric Arch and Hermitage. Incidentally, the Rotondo stands almost slap bang in the middle of a fairway, and the visitor must be very wary if he / she decides to approach it. When I last visited it, I had to wait before I stepped out onto the gravel path that crosses the fairway, as traveling not too high, but at some speed, a golf ball did indeed fly past my eyes.

 

 

 

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