the fashionable architects in italy s competing city states particularly in venice milan florence and pisa became some of the top earners of the renaissance. no longer nameless as they had been in the middle ages they were celebrated and pampered elites. venetian noblemen spend fortunes on palaces in the new style. architect antonio continue designed and built the bridge of sighs one of the most photographed motifs in the world. this new style of building became popular outside italy the city will in syria is a masterpiece of the late renaissance one hundred years earlier the sculptor and builder until an eastern man had built one of the most picturesque examples of italian renaissance village cern town hall in switzerland.