Baroque

Baroque (Port, barrocco, a rough, irregular pearl), a term applied to that irregular and incongruous style of architecture which flourished, especially in Italy from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Following on the classical revival of the Renaissance, it is nevertheless characterised by fantastic and exaggerated ornamentation, and by violation of many of the ordinary canons of classical architecture. Many Jesuit churches are erected in this style.