Andrea Palladio’s Vicenza, summarised
- La Rotonda is a symmetrical villa with a central dome.
- The Palladio Museum showcases models of Palladio’s architectural works.
- The Basilica Palladiana converts a Gothic building with Palladian windows and a marble façade.
- The Palazzo Valmarana demonstrates Palladio’s adaptation to street angles.
For more detail, read on…
The familiarity of La Rotonda
On a hilltop, a couple of miles outside Vicenza’s city centre, stands a building that looks instantly recognisable. La Rotonda has four identical facades, each dolled up with six columns, while a domed roof both smooths out and adds to the pleasing sense of symmetry. It brings to mind several buildings from around the world – not least Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Virginia, which was directly inspired by it.
The story of Andrea Palladio
The architect behind it – Andrea Palladio – is arguably the most influential the world has ever produced. After all, how many other architectural styles bear the name of their creator? And while Palladian buildings have spread worldwide, the highest concentration of them can be found in Palladio’s adopted home town.
The boy who would go on to be one of the architectural greats was born Andrea di Pietro della Gondola, the relatively lowly son of a miller in Padua. He trained as a stone mason, and moved to Vicenza as a 16-year-old in 1524.
Palladio gets his name – and patron
Then, around 1538, he was working on the villa of Giangiorgio Trissino, who saw something he liked and became his patron. Trissino gave Andrea the name Palladio, and took him on tours to Rome, where the budding architect took inspiration from the ancient Roman temples. He would end up taking aspects from the sacred spaces of old, and transferring them to domestic environments.
Vicenza’s Palladio Museum
For learning about Palladio’s back story and his works, the best starting place is the Palazzo Barbaran da Porto, which plays host to the Palladio Museum. Inside, many of Palladio’s buildings are shown off in scale model form.
But the real deals aren’t far away. Dozens of buildings in the city were either designed by Palladio or were added to by him. The Basilica Palladiana is a classic example of the latter. He added a double loggia, portico and a marble exterior that hid the old Gothic building and turned it into something altogether more classical.
It also bears the hallmarks of Palladio’s underrated pragmatic streak. The arches of the loggia all have identical measurements, but the columns and support pillars are spaced inconsistently. That’s barely noticeable, but it was essential to preserve the underpass in the middle big enough for tucks to get through.
The lessons of Palazzo Valmarana
The Palazzo Valmarana is another piece of beauty married with pragmatism. The original design had the façade perpendicular to the rear walls, but the angle of the street prevented that, so he slanted it. He also wanted the palace to “talk” to the other buildings on the street, so the bay windows at either end of the six were made thinner, creating a smoother transition to the neighbouring buildings rather than a jarring contrast.
It’s such accommodations that help make Vicenza such a visually harmonious city to walk through. Palladio may not have had a hand in everything, but he took care to marry his creations with what existed – and those inspired by Palladio later followed suit.
Find out more about Palladio in Vicenza
The Vicenza tourism office has helpful online and printed guides to Palladio’s buildings in and around the city. www.vicenzae.org. More comprehensive, detailed books can be bought at the Palladio Museum.
Other tours and experiences in Vicenza include pasta-making classes, wine tours and e-bike tours around the Palladian villas.
More Veneto travel
Other travel articles about the Veneto region of Italy on Planet Whitley include:
- A guide to Treviso for first time visitors.
- A guide to Padua for first time visitors.
- The world’s oldest botanic garden in Padua.
- A guide to Vicenza for first time visitors.
- A guide to Verona for first time visitors.
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