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April 1999
Veneto - Vicenza
David Aaronson2005-09-23 23:33:00
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Wednesday morning we headed back inland to the town and region of Vicenza. Vicenza is perhaps best known as the home of Andrea Palladio - a 16th century architect best known for his villas. Palladio also designed the rotunda just south of Vicenza which strongly influenced the design of Washington D.C. While most of his famous works are villas in the countryside around Vicenza, he designed a number of villas and public buildings in the city itself. Palladio incorporated this 12th century tower into his huge basilica in the center of town.
We left Vicenza to visit several of his villas, scattered amongst the Berici Hills south of Vicenza. Most of them are open to public, but often only a few hours each week. The villa we actually toured (because it was open, among other things) shown here, is the Villa Saraceno. In the 1500s, the powerful Venetians forbade the nobles of Vicenza from building forts and castles. So instead they developed the villa. The basic layout has a low stone wall forming a square. The buildings themselves are part of the wall and all face inwards.
Along with the main house, which was expanded several times over the years, there is a barn/stables, a small gate house, and even a silkworm cot. At first glance the architecture appears consistent throughout the villa, though considerable portions of this were built by the family which owned it well after Palladio did the original work.
In this picture, taken from just outside the front gate, you can actually see right through the main house. The central house is actually not particularly large. Like most of Palladio's designs it is a rectangle, subdivided into smaller rectangular rooms. The walls of the front porch are completely frescoed as was much of the interior once. Today only a few fragments of the frescoes remain in some rooms. We were not allowed upstairs or into the auxiliary buildings as they are actually rooms which can
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See photographs from:
Italy Gallery
