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The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco
In a city known for tech and fog, the Palace of Fine Arts is San Francisco’s unexpected Roman holiday. Those soaring columns and rotunda weren’t built by ancient Romans – they were created for a world’s fair by a California architect who wanted to design the perfect ruins.
A century later, his faux ruins have become a real San Francisco treasure.
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Art Meant to Decay
Intentionally designed by Bernard Maybeck to appear ancient, the original 1915 Palace was built from plaster-fiber over wood (meant to fade gracefully with time)…