Panoramica di Vicenza
Vicenza lies at the foot of the Berici Hills, at the confluence of the Retrone and the Bacchiglione. Universally acclaimed as “Palladio’s town”, an artistic gem of a town among the most important in the Veneto, Vicenza is enchanting in the nobility of its architectural forms and the harmony of its proportions.
Of early Veneto origin, the town was declared a Roman “Municipium” in the year 49 B.C.; considerable traces of that time can still be seen (the Criptoportico, mosaic floors, briges, the Lobia acqueduct, the Berga theatre). Like other town in the Po Valley, Vicenza too underwent a series of invasions at the hands of the Eruli, Ostrgoths, Visigoths and later of the Longobards who chose the town as the headquarters of one of the 36 Duchies. After the period of temporal power exerted in Vicenza by the countbishops, the town became a free Commune in 1164; later it fell under the rule of the Da Carrara family of Padua, the La Scala family of Verona and the Visconti family of Milan, until it made the Act of Surrender to Venice (28 april 1404). It was under the rule of the Serene Republic that Vicenza acquired that unmistakable appearance that was to earn it the name of “mainland Venice”. Occupied by the French (1796), it was handed over to the Emperor of Austria under the Treaty of Campoformio (1797). From 1813 Vicenza was part of the Italian Kingdom and returned to the Austrians after the fall of Bonaparte.
The people of Vicenza led a victorious uprising against Austrian rule in March 1848, proclaiming the Provisional Government and adhering to the Veneto Republic. The Austrian troop returned with reinforcements and attacked the town at dawn on 10 june 1848; fighting raged especially on Monte Berico for the whole day, but in the evening the townspeople surrendered. For the affairs of 1848 the town Banner was decorated with the gold medal by Victor Emmanuel II (18 November 1866) when the town united with the Kingdom of Italy. During the First World War the Headquarters of the First Army was stationed in Vicenza, while the province was the theatre of the “Strafe Expedition” (punitive expedition) and of epic battles on Monte Grappa, the Pasubio and the Asiago Plateau. During the second World War, after the terrible air raids, severe damage was done to the old town centre even the dome of the Basilica, the symbol of Vicenza, caught fire and collapsed. In the immediate post- war period the damaged monuments were accurately restored; further restoration work and renovation is again in progress in the old town centre, not only in its monumental buildings but also in the minor works of architectutre that compose the true face of Vicenza.
The town Banner was decorated with the second gold medal (5 November 1994) by the President of Italian Repubblic, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (11 March 1995), for the partisan activity.
Palladio’s Buildings
Villa Forni Cerato
Montecchio Precalcino Vicenza (c. 1565)
Villa Forni Cerato, like the Casa Cogollo, represents a prime example of Palladio’s altering a pre-existing building using relatively modest means to construct a significant piece of work. It is quite possible that the stark minimalism of this building coincided with the middle class status and pocket of the owner. The villa is the result of the restructuring of a pre-existing “old house” and, if anything, opinion should be reversed to recognise the genius of Palladio in working within situational limits to still produce expressive works.
Address
Via Venezia, 4 Montecchio Precalcino Vicenza
Villa Caldogno
Caldogno Vicenza (1542)
In 1541, a Vicentine aristocrat and busy silk merchant called Losco Caldogno inherited a farm complex and a sizeable acreage of land at Caldogno, a few kilometres north of Vicenza. The layout of the villa is simple and the rooms are not in perfect proportion to one another. Around 1570, frescoes were painted by Giovanni Antonio Fasolo and Giovanni Battista Zelotti in the two larger rooms on the left side of the villa and transformed the interior into a wonderful architectural stage set.
Address
Via Zanella, 1 Caldogno Vicenza
Visit
Presently under restoration (call 0444 905054 for further information)
tel. 0444 905054 (Municipal Library)
Villa Trissino at Cricoli
Vicenza (1534)
Villa Trissino
It is unclear whether this villa was or was not designed by Palladio, but it is one of the places where if not in fact the origin of, it is where his myth began. Tradition would have that it was in this very villa sometime after the mid 1530s, the Vicentine noble Giangiorgio Trissino (1478-1550) met the young mason Andrea di Pietro working on the villa building site. Perhaps by intuition, Trissino recognised the potential and talent of the young man, took him under his wing, saw to his apprenticeship and training and then introduced him to Vicentine aristocracy. In the space of a few short years the young worker had been transformed into the architect Palladio. Trissino did not demolish the pre-existing building, but redesigned it to have it facing south. This act was a sort of claim to membership of the new building mentality based on the rediscovery of ancient Roman architecture.
Address
Strada Marosticana, 6 Vicenza
Villa Valmarana Scagliolari Zen
Lisiera di Bolzano Vicentino Vicenza (c. 1563)
Villa Valmarana
The villa we see today is very different from that designed by Palladio for Gianfrancesco Valmarana around 1563. An idea of Palladio’s original plan can be seen in an engraving in the Quattro Libri (the Four Books on Architecture was an influential treatise). This shows a building with loggias on two floors, enclosed by small towers on both fronts. The drawing however displays more uncertainties and inexactitudes than would normally be found elsewhere.
Address
Via Vigardoletto, 33 Vigardolo di Monticello Conte Otto Vicenza
Visit
Visits all year round by appointment only.
tel. 0444 596242 / 0338 7423583
Villa Almerico Capra – La Rotonda
Vicenza (1556)
La Rotonda
Although the Villa Rotonda is the universal symbol of a Palladian villa, the truth is that its owner saw it more as an urban, or perhaps more appropriately, a suburban residence. Paolo Almerico in fact sold his own palace in the city in order to move just outside the walls. It was Palladio himself who, in the Quattro Libri, placed the villa Rotonda amongst the palaces, not the villas. The villa is isolated and sits on the crest of a small hill; originally it did not encompass any farmland.
Address
Via della Rotonda, 45 Vicenza
Visit
Outside visits: every day 10-12am / 3-6pm
Inside visits: April 15 to November 4,
Wednesday 10-12am / 3-6pm
tel. 0444 321793 / 049 8790879
fax (preferable) 049 8791380
Villa Piovene
Lonedo di Lugo Vicentino Vicenza (c. 1539)
Villa Piovene
This villa was not mentioned in the Quattro Libri although the same has applied to other villas like Villa Gazzotti or Valmarana at Vigardolo. It is however the characteristics of the building itself which are the most perplexing: the layout is a little expressionless, the windows are positioned in a somewhat random fashion, and the anticum does not sit well with the main body of the building.
The villa was clearly built in three distinct phases. Documents demonstrate the existence of a manor that was smaller than the present one and was certainly built before 1541. This house was later enlarged by the addition of the anticum that bears an inscription date 1587. In the early eighteenth century, the architect Francesco Muttoni constructed the current lateral barchessas, laid out the garden and was probably responsible for the double staircase that leads to the loggia. The wonderful flight of stairs that leads up to the villa was built some years beforehand along with the splendid 1703 gate.
Address
Via Palladio, 51 Lonedo di Lugo Vicentino Vicenza
Visit
Every day 2-7pm
Arcades of Villa Trissino
Vicenza (1534)
Barchesse di Villa Trissino
This imposing multi-level building was very obviously inspired by the ancient Roman Acropolis style. It is not clear whether the project expressed an unfulfilled desire. There are however evident traces of the beginnings of a Palladian project in the massive stone foundations for buildings along the riverbanks and in the barchessas with wonderfully made Tuscan pillars.
Address
Strada Marosticana, 6 Vicenza
Villa Pisani
Bagnolo di Lonigo Vicenza (1542)
Villa Pisani
The execution of the Villa Pisani at Bagnolo from 1542 on would constitute a real turning point in young Palladio’s career. The vast agricultural estate of over 1200 fields had been Pisani property since 1523 and was dominated by the house of the previous owners, the Vicentine Nogarola family. This building was probably in some way assimilated into the new construction. The manor house was completed in 1545 and a 1562 map shows a great barchessa terminating in two dovecotes at the back of the courtyard. This building, much admired by Vasari, was later destroyed and replaced by the present 19th century structure positioned longways and quite unrelated to Palladio’s project.
Address
Via Risaie, 1 Bagnolo di Lonigo Vicenza
Visit
April to November:
visits by appointment only.
tel. 0444 831104
Villa Angarano
Bassano del Grappa Vicenza (1548)
Villa Angarano
Very little remains of the villa that Palladio designed for his great friend Giacomo Angarano in the neighbourhood of Bassano del Grappa: – only the two barchessas that flank a manor house that is clearly 17th century. A drawing in the Quattro Libri gives us the plan of the complex as the architect originally intended it. There were two barchessas formed “U” shape enclosing a protuberant manor house.
Barchessa destra
Address
Via Corte, 41 – S. Eusebio Bassano del Grappa Vicenza
Visit
Public not admitted.
Villa Godi
Lonedo di Lugo Vicentino Vicenza (1537)
Villa Godi
Palladio’s construction of the villa at Lonedo for the brothers Girolamo, Pietro and Marcantonio Godi began in 1537 and concluded in 1542. In all probability this was not an independent assignment, but rather one obtained through the workshop of Gerolamo Pittoni and Giacomo da Porlezza, where the young Andrea enjoyed the position of architectural specialist. In fact, the restoration work on the family estate had already begun in 1533, when a Doric barchessa was built in the left courtyard at the behest of the father, Enrico Antonio Godi.
This is the first work that can definitely be attributed to Andrea Palladio, (he states his ownership in the Quattro Libri) and marks the first step in his attempt to build a new type of countryside residence. His desire to intersperse themes from local building tradition along and with those he had recently discovered thanks to Trissino is more than evident.
The outcome is a rather stark building from which he has abolished all the fancy decorations that typified 15th century tradition. The symmetry is evident; the building is set around precisely defined areas in an arrangement achieved by recessing the central part of the façade that becomes a loggia with three open arches. The same strong sense of symmetry characterises the layout of the building and revolves around the central axis from loggia to lounge area, flanked by two apartments of four rooms each.
Address
Via Palladio, 44 Lonedo di Lugo Vicentino Vicenza
Visit
June 1 to October 31: every day 3-7pm
November 1 to May 31: every day 2-6pm
tel. 0445 860561 / 0339 3429942
Villa Gazzotti
Bertesina Vicenza (1542)
Villa Gazzotti
Andrea Palladio designed the Villa for Taddeo Gazzotti between 1542 and 1543. In designing the villa, Palladio first of all had to deal with the problem of assimilating a pre-existing tower-house into the design. This well documented previous edifice can still be seen making up the right corner of the completed building. Palladio duplicated the tower at the building’s other extremity and created two symmetrical apartments of three rooms each connected by a barrel-vaulted loggia to the great cross-vaulted staircase. The building, which is long but not particularly deep, is contained by a wall-high composite surround and has a central loggia. It reflects the influence of Giulio Romano’s Palazzo del Te in Mantua and the project for the great villa of the Thiene brothers at Quinto being built at the same time.
Address
Via San Cristoforo, 23 Bertesina Vicenza
Visit
Public not admitted.
Villa Thiene
Bertesina Vicenza (1542)
Villa Thiene
The Villa Thiene at Quinto, like the family palace in Vicenza, was probably built for Marcantonio and Adriano Thiene using a design by Giulio Romano later modified by the work’s manager, Palladio. It is located at the centre of the Thienes’ two large farming areas and overlooks the river Tesina. The design contained elements that were radically different from anything seen in other Palladian villas. The building is dominated by a great barrel-vaulted loggia that is much higher than the rest of the building; the exterior meanwhile is adorned with Doric pillars that are reduplicated on the shorter sides.
Address
Via San Cristoforo, 23 Bertesina Vicenza
Visit
Public not admitted
Villa Poiana
Poiana Maggiore Vicenza (1546)
Villa Poiana and Interno della loggia
Palladio was commissioned to design this villa was commissioned by the Vicentine, Bonifacio Poiana. This family had held virtual feudal rule over the territories since the Middle Ages and the land bore their name. Palladio probably designed the villa towards the end of the 1540’s, but work proceeded slowly. They only completed the work in 1563, when the interior decoration was given the final touches by the painters Bernardino India and Anselmo Canera, and the sculptor Bartolomeo Ridolfi.
In both the Quattro Libri and Palladio’s signed drawings that are preserved in London, this villa is always treated as part of a wider project to reorganise and standardise surrounding areas and converting them into spacious courtyards. The only part of this design that actually became a reality was the barchessa to the left of the villa that featured Doric capitals but Tuscan inter-columns. Construction was completed in the 17th century, when Bonifacio’s heirs had the building altered to their requirements and tastes that included the addition of another wing to the right of the villa using similar window mouldings to the original.
Address
Via Castello, 41 Poiana Maggiore Vicenza
Visit
Presently under restoration (call 0444 323014 for further information)
tel. 0444 323014
Villa Chiericati
Vancimuglio di Grumolo delle Abbadesse Vicenza (1550)
Villa Chiericati
Villa Chiericati at Vancimuglio marks a fundamental stage in the evolution of Palladio’s architecture. Here, for the first time we see a real antique temple anticum included in a villa’s design. This created a precedent that went on to become a classical solution for later projects (for example at the Villas Rotonda and Malcontenta). The owner of the villa was Giovanni Chiericati, Girolamo’s brother for whom Palladio was building a palace on the “Isola di Vicenza” at the same time. In 1557, a year before the owner’s death, the villa was still largely incomplete. In 1564 it had been roofed but the interior was unfinished and the windows were still missing. It was still not lived in. The villa was bought by Ludovico Porto in 1574 then completed in 1584 by Domenico Groppino who frequently worked alongside Palladio.
Address
Via Nazionale, 1 Vancimuglio di Grumolo delle Abbadesse Vicenza
Visit
April 1 to October 31:
every day 9-12am / 3-7pm
November 1 to March 31:
every day 9-12am / 3-5pm
tel. 0444 38707
Villa Valmarana
Lisiera di Bolzano Vicentino Vicenza (c. 1563)
Villa Valmarana
In the early 1540’s, Palladio designed a small villa for the cousins Giuseppe and Antonio Valmarana who had inherited land in Vigardolo, a few kilometres north of Vicenza. The need to house two families within the same building may explain the layout of the rooms that are organised into two independent, symmetrical apartments. These were accessed from the rear living area rather than from the loggia at the front of the house that the cousins shared.
Affresco
This building was part of a transitional project in Palladio’s professional life, but one in which we find his characteristic traits in terms of architectural language completely at one for the first time. We see elements that belong to local Vicentine building tradition in this villa, like the layout of the rooms that resembles the Villa Trissino at Cricoli. One of these elements was the laying out of side rooms in terms of the exact proportional ratio to one another.
Address
Via Ponte, 3 Lisiera di Bolzano Vicentino Vicenza
Visit
tel. 0444 356920
Villa Saraceno
Lisiera di Bolzano Vicentino Vicenza (c. 1563)
Villa Saraceno
Towards the end of the 1540’s, Andrea Palladio was asked by Biagio Saraceno to redesign an existing farm at Finale di Agugliaro that had long been family property. Palladio’s project may well have included the complete remodelling of the whole property. In the Quattro Libri, Palladio shows the building as hemmed in between two large, right-angled barchessas. However, no such wholesale restructuring ever took place and Palladio’s contribution was limited to the manor house. On the right side of the farmyard, the buildings are still 15th century, whereas the barchessa was built at the beginning of the 19th century.
Interno
Either way, the villa itself is one of the best of Palladio’s creations of the 1540’s. The building demonstrates an extraordinary, almost ascetic, simplicity and is a single space made from brick and plaster from which every decorative element has been removed. The sparing use of worked stone is limited to the most significant architectural elements (like the windows and portals) and to other structural essentials. It is the design alone that breathes life into this creation despite its limited size. It seems to have its own life-force with roots in an ancient Roman temple. The upper floor is raised from the ground and sits atop a platform that houses the cellars; the façade of the loggia is crowned by a triangular spandrel. A number of small windows light the loft where grain was normally stored.
The layout of the villa, even in just diagram form, is charming in its simplicity. There are two minor areas designed to accommodate the stairs that give form to the “T” shape of the living area. To the sides of these lesser areas sit two pairs of rooms that are perfectly proportionally matched.
Address
Via Ponte, 3 Lisiera di Bolzano Vicentino Vicenza
Visit
tel. 0444 356920
Religious Buildings
Side Portal of the Cathedral of Vicenza
Vicenza (c. 1563)
Side portal of the Cathedral of Vicenza
In 1560 Paolo Almerico asked the Cathedral Chapter for permission to erect a portal at his own expense on the north side of the Cathedral, in correspondence with the chapel of San Giovanni Evangelista. This is the same Paolo Almerico who a few years later would commission the construction of the Villa Rotonda from Palladio. The portal was opened in 1565, probably on the occasion of the solemn entrance of the bishop Matteo Priuli.
In the absence of documents or autograph drawings, the attribution to Palladio rests firstly on the portal’s affinities with antique models well known to the architect (like the portal of the Temple of Fortuna Virile) and secondly its similarity to the design of the lateral portals of the Cathedral of San Pietro di Castello in Venice, which Palladio designed in 1558.
Address
Contrà Lampertico Vicenza
Visit
tel. 0444 325007
Santa Maria dei Servi
Portal of S. Maria dei Servi
The portal bearing the inscription 1531, was commissioned for the sum of two hundred ducats by Francesco Godi to be paid to Gerolamo Pittoni and Giacomo da Porlezza. These were the well-known masters of “Pedemuro” (the name of the area where their studio was located) where in 1524, the young stone mason Andrea di Pietro worked. He was later to become the architect Andrea Palladio.
The Servi portal is one of the high points of the Pedemoro masters’ work. The quality of the design, especially of the architectural elements that are remarkably similar to those of Venetian examples by Jacopo Sansovino. It is possible that this work was carried out by the young Andrea who at that stage was still not fully trained. In the workshop, he was gradually developing his expertise in architectural planning (although he would work along with Giacomo da Porlezza) when in the project for the loggias at the Palazzo della Regione was presented in 1546.
Address
Piazza Biade, 23
Vicenza
Valmarana Chapel
Vicenza (c. 1576)
Detail of Valmarana Chapel (Cappella Valmarana) and Cappella Valmarana Lateral Apse
It was probably in 1576, on the occasion of Antonio Valmarana’s death, that Palladio came to design the delicate chapel in the crypt of the church of Santa Corona, which had been the sepulchral space of the Valmarana family for already fifty years. For Antonio’s parents, Palladio had already built some ten years earlier the great family palace on today’s Corso Fogazzaro, which Antonio himself certainly inhabited by 1574. The date 1597 inscribed on a pavement slab does not, therefore, refer to the construction of the chapel, but rather to the later translation of the remains of the parents and brothers, undertaken by Leonardo Valmarana, who arrogated himself responsibility for its construction in his will.
Undoubtedly by Palladio, even without direct documentary evidence, the Cappella Valmarana is a carefully-gauged space, almost a hypogaeum, of extremely reduced dimensions. A square chamber, bounded by book-folded pilasters with double entasis, extends longitudinally with two niches surmounted by a similar number of embrasures through which is filtered a sepulchral light: this is a sophisticated quotation of the tablinum from the antique Roman house.
In virtually the same years Palladio designed the lateral chapels of the church of the Redentore in Venice, arranging in sequence a series of spaces substantially identical to those of the Cappella Valmarana, almost as though the example at Vicenza were a sort of prototype.
Address
Contra’ S. Corona, 2 Vicenza
Visit
Every day 8.30-12am / 2.30-6.30pm
tel. 0444 323644
Santa Maria Nova – Church
Vicenza (1578)
S. Maria Nova – Face
In 1578 the Vicentine noble Lodovico Trento earmarked a sizeable sum of money for the reconstruction of a small church attached to the convent of the Augustinian nuns of Santa Maria Nova in Borgo Porta Nuova, west of the city. By 1590, twelve years later, the church had been completed and was decorated with canvases by foremost artists like Maffei, the Maganza, Andrea Vicentino, and Carpioni. The convent, constructed from 1539 onwards, was amongst the most important in the city and hosted numerous daughters from the aristocratic families of Vicenza, such as the Valmarana, Piovene, Angarano, Revese, Garzadori and Monza.
Although neither documents nor autograph drawings exist to prove Palladio’s authorship of the church, it seems very probable that the building resulted from a project he had drawn up around 1578 and was then realised (after Palladio’s death in 1580) under the supervision of the capomastro Domenico Groppino, whose name appears in the relevant documentation. Furthermore, in 1583, Montano Barbarano — the patron of Palladio’s palace in the Contra’ Porti — also set aside a notable amount of money for the construction of the church of the convent which accommodated his two daughters, and Domenico Groppino is known to have been Montano’s tried and trusted builder.
Aula
The evidence of the architecture itself excludes the possibility that Groppino, a simple capomastro, could have been the church’s designer. The church has a single nave, in the form of an ancient temple cella, entirely bounded by engaged Corinthian columns on plinths: quite close in appearance to the Roman temple at Nîmes which Palladio had drawn in the Quattro Libri.
It would be most difficult to distance the name of Andrea Palladio from the power, but also inventive freedom, of this interior and also of its façade, if for no other reason than the fact that a simple imitator would have operated within a much more conventional register. Certain errors and uncertainties of construction should probably be ascribed to Groppino.
Address
Contrada Santa Maria Nova Vicenza
Visit
Outside visits only.
Cathedral of Vicenza – Dome
Vicenza (1558)
Cupola della Cattedrale – Veduta aerea (foto archivio Fototecnica Vicenza)
The construction of the apse in the Cathedral of Vicenza had begun in 1482 to the design of Lorenzo da Bologna, but in 1531 it was still unfinished. Early, temporary, roofing was erected in 1540, as a result of the possibility that Vicenza might host the Church Council which in the end was held at Trent. Only in 1557 did the Comune of Vicenza receive the financial means necessary from the Republic of Venice, in the shape of a bequest left by Bishop Zeno at the beginning of the century, and were therefore able to set in motion the work’s completion.
Andrea Palladio, the author of the new project, most probably drew up an overall design which was however executed in two phases: from 1558 to 1559 the main cornice was built over the windows and the drum raised, while from 1564 to January 1566 the dome itself was constructed.
The characteristic form of the lantern, abstract and devoid of decoration, was replicated on the summit of the cupolas of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice (planned in the same years), and is also present in some of Palladio’s reconstructions of centrally planned antique temples, such as the Mausoleum of Romulus on the Via Appia.
Address
Piazza del Duomo Vicenza
Visit
Every day 9-12am / 3.30-7pm
tel. 0444 325007
Private Palaces
- Palazzo Valmarana
- Palazzo Thiene
- Palazzo Schio
- Palazzo Porto in piazza Castello
- Palazzo Civena
- Casa Cogollo
- Palazzo Poiana
- Palazzo Barbaran da Porto
- Palazzo Thiene Bonin Longare
- Palazzo Porto
For More Information:
Palladio Museum
Villa Cornaro at Piombino Dese
Vicenza, palazzo Barbarano
Information
TripAdvisor
Opening hours
Tuesday to Sunday 10 am – 6pm
Tickets museum + exhibitions
tickets € 8.00
– concessions* € 6.00
- schools** € 2.00 – Palladio family*** € 12.00
* members of FAI and Touring Club Italiano, over 60s, students under 25
** schools, Touring Club Junior members
*** 1 to 4 children/teenagers under 18 with two adults
Free admission: children under 6, 1 disabled person + 1 helper, ICOM members, 1 accompanying teacher per class, members of the Italian armed forces
The museum is fully accessible to people with physical disabilities. The toilet is equipped with baby changing table.
For information and bookings
T +39 0444 323014
F +39 0444 322869
https://www.palladiomuseum.org/
UNESCO INSCRIPTION
The city of Vicenza and the Palladian villas of the Veneto
Inscription N° 712/712bis 1994-1996 C (i) (ii)
Vicenza is one of the oldest cities in Veneto although not a lot is known about its history before it was occupied by the Romans. It would appear to have been founded by the Euganei but it was the Gauls that governed it until 157 BC when after annexation by Rome, it became called Viceta or Vincentia. The city thrived under the rule of the Emperor Adrian, was later sacked by the Barbarians but subsequently returned to its former splendour under the Goths then the Longobards and then the Franks. It became an Episcopal principality in 1001, while between the 12th and 14th centuries it was at war with its neighbouring cities and passed from rule to rule. In 1404 it became part of the Republic of Veneto. Vicenza’s was at the height of its glory in the 14th century. Thanks to its wealthy aristocracy, many palaces and public buildings were built during the Renaissance period and most of these were designed either by Andrea Palladio or his pupils and those who were of his school. In 1813, after Napoleon, control of Vicenza passed to Austria. There was an uprising in 1848 and in 1866 the city became part of the new Kingdom of Italy. In 1848, the Commune’s flag was adorned with the gold medal for military valour for “the strenuous defence by the citizens against the enemy in May and June 1848”. In 1994 the city was awarded similar recognition for the activities carried out by its partisans during WW II.
On 15 December 1994, Vicenza was inscribed on the World Heritage List. The World Heritage List inscription includes twenty-three Palladian buildings in the historic centre and three villas located outside the city walls also designed by the master architect. The city of Palladio may therefore rightly boast the title of “world heritage site” because “it is a special artistic ensemble, due to the many works by Andrea Palladio himself. Placed together in a harmonious historical context, they are the characterising feature of the whole.
Palladio’s city and works have had a profound influence on the history of architecture, dictating the rules of town planning in most of Europe and the rest of the world”.
In 1996, UNESCO recognition was extended to include Palladian villas (sixteen) in the surrounding territory.
Vicenza is now one of the UNESCO sites housing the greatest number of protected monuments. There are thirty-nine in all even if the entire city’s historic centre created by Palladio’s genius is considered to be the “world heritage site”.
On 15 December 1994, the UNESCO world heritage committee, meeting in Phuket in Thailand, inscribed Vicenza on the list on the basis of two criteria:
1) Vicenza is a special artistic ensemble, due to the many works by Andrea Palladio himself. Placed together in a harmonious historical context, they are the characterising feature of the whole
2) Palladio’s city and works have had a profound influence on the history of architecture, dictating the rules of town planning in most of Europe and the rest of the world.
