Like many a fine romance, the Palace of Fine Arts was a folly that wasn't expected to last. California arts-and-crafts architect Bernard Maybeck originally built this Greco-Roman ruin in plaster for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Expo, but San Francisco decided to keep the Palace after the fair, and recast it in concrete. Join shy prom dates and shivering brides posing for photos under the Rotunda frieze, showing "art under attack by materialists, with idealists leaping to her rescue" – a timeless sentiment.
Palace of Fine Arts
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