Banqueting House, Whitehall
The Banqueting House in London was designed by Inigo Jones, a famous architecture and designer, in 1619 for James I. The Vitruvian basilica served as a model for the Banqueting House. It was once part of Whitehall Palace which was destroied during the Great Fire of London in 1698. Only the Banqueting House remained until today. It was basically used to provide a setting for a special type of court entertainment - the masque which was a mixture of ball, amateur theatre and fancy dress party. During the Restoration the Banqueting House was used to demonstrate the royal splendors and was created as a "Gesamtkunstwerk" which united architecture, music, performance and painting.
Famous events
Besides the function as a great entertainment hall other important events took place at and in the Banqueting House. In 1649 Charles I was beheaeded in front of the Banqueting House. After Charles' death Whitehall Palace remained empty for several years until Oliver Cromwell started to use it again in 1654. After his death it again remained deserted until 1660 - the beginning of the Restoration period. Banqueting House again was used as a ceremonial chamber of the court. One of the last important ceremonies took place in 1689 when the Crown was offered to the Prince and Princess of Orange who later became King William III and Queen Mary II. After 1689 it lost its importance to the court.
The ceiling
The most famous part of the Banqueting House is the ceiling. The canvasses one can find there were painted by Sir Peter Paul Rubens, a famous Flemish artist of the 17th cebtury. After Rubens finished painting these canvasses in his studio in Antwerp they were shipped to London in 1636 and finally placed in Banqueting House in 1636.
In 1893 the Banqueting House was given to the nation by Queen Victoria as a museum.
http://www.hrp.org.uk/BanquetingHouse/stories.aspx Parry, Graham (1981): Golden Age Restor'd: Culture of the Stuart Court (1603-42). Manchester: Manchester University Press. Benevolo, Leonardo (2002): Architecture of the Renaissance. Facsimile edition. Routledge Chapman & Hall.