+BAROQUE CHURCHES.+ The Baroque style prevailed in church architecture for almost two centuries. The majority of the churches present varieties of the cruciform plan crowned by a high dome which is usually the best part of the design. Everywhere else the vices of the period appear in these churches, especially in their façades and internal decoration. +S. M. della Vittoria+, by Maderna, and +Sta. Agnese+, by Borromini, both at Rome, are examples of the style. Naples is particularly full of Baroque churches (Fig. 173), a few of which, like the +Gesù Nuovo+ (1584), are dignified and creditable designs. The domical church of +S. M. della Salute+, at Venice (1631), by Longhena, is also a majestic edifice in excellent style (Fig. 174), and here and there other churches offer exceptions to the prevalent baseness of architecture. Particularly objectionable was the wholesale disfigurement of existing monuments by ruthless remodelling, as in S. John Lateran, at Rome, the cathedrals of Ferrara and Ravenna, and many others. +PALACES.+ These were generally superior to the churches, and not infrequently impressive and dignified structures. The two best examples in Rome are the +P. Borghese+, by _Martino Lunghi the Elder_ (1590), with a fine court arcade on coupled Doric and Ionic columns, and the +P. Barberini+, by Maderna and Borromini, with an elliptical staircase by Bernini, one of the few palaces in Italy with projecting lateral wings. In Venice, Longhena, in the +Rezzonico+ and +Pesaro+ palaces (1650-80), showed his freedom from the mannerisms of the age by reproducing successfully the ornate but dignified style of Sansovino (see p. 301). At Naples D. Fontana, whose works overlap the Baroque period, produced in the +Royal Palace+ (1600) and the +Royal Museum+ (1586-1615) designs of considerable dignity, in some respects superior to his papal residences in Rome. In suburban villas, like the +Albani+ and +Borghese+ villas near Rome, the ostentatious style of the Decline found free and congenial expression. +LATER MONUMENTS.+ In the few eighteenth-century buildings which are worthy of mention there is noticeable a reaction from the extravagances of the seventeenth century, shown in the dignified correctness of the exteriors and the somewhat frigid splendor of the interiors. The most notable work of this period is the +Royal Palace+ at +Caserta+, by _Van Vitelli_ (1752), an architect of considerable taste and inventiveness, considering his time. This great palace, 800 feet square, encloses four fine courts, and is especially remarkable for the simple if monotonous dignity of the well proportioned exterior and the effective planning of its three octagonal vestibules, its ornate chapel and noble staircase. Staircases, indeed, were among the most successful features of late Italian architecture, as in the +Scala Regia+ of the Vatican, and in the Corsini, Braschi, and Barberini palaces at Rome, the Royal Palace at Naples, etc.