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On this page we present another historic Italian excellence that those who love horses and their elegance will certainly appreciate: Vicenza and the Palladian Villas, located in an extraordinary area of Italy where our Leather Goods Collection is born from the hands of skilled leather craftsmen. Enjoy the reading.
Vicenza, to discover and live in every square, in every street, in every alley, is one of the most beautiful cities in Italy where the architecture of historic buildings, monuments and churches create a unique harmony that makes Vicenza a splendid city, included in the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 1994, extended in 1996 also to 24 Palladian villas that rise in the countryside and in the smaller centers of the Veneto.
The artistic history of Vicenza is closely linked to the creative genius of Andrea di Pietro della Gondola, known as Palladio, an architect admired all over the world.
Founded between the 11th and 7th century BC, the history of VIcenza is linked to the Most Serene Republic of Venice, to which it was subjected from 1404 until the end of the 18th century.
Here, in the sixteenth century, the great architect made his fame known to the whole world thanks to the artistic heritage he left to the people of Vicenza: the Palladian Basilica, the Chiericati palace and the Olympic Theater which are the highest expression of the Palladian artistic genius.
“It is not possible to describe the impression that the Basilica of Palladio makes …” said Goethe after admiring the most famous monument of the city, overlooking Piazza dei Signori and rebuilt in 1614, according to the Palladian taste.
A curiosity: in the church of Santa Corona is the tomb of Luigi Da Porto, author of the novel Juliet and Romeo from which Shakespeare drew inspiration for his famous drama.
After this brief visit to Vicenza, we now see some of Palladio’s most famous villas, starting from Villa Foscari, in Mira, called the Malcontenta, built by Andrea Palladio in 1554 for the two Foscari brothers, Alvise and Nicolò, descendants of the Doge Francesco Foscari.
This large villa, on the edge of the Brenta Riviera, is a presentation to the inhabitants of Venice of the great architect from Vicenza, who had never built anything in the capital of the Venetian Republic.
Palladio designs a perfect architecture in which he blends his theory with his extraordinary compositional experience by designing a building with a central plan, on three floors, which in the front has the shape of a hexastyle temple of Ionic order.
The noble floor of the Villa is decorated with a magnificent cycle of frescoes by Gian Battista Zelotti with themes taken mainly from the Metamorphoses of Ovid.
After more than a century of neglect, the recovery of the Villa began in 1925 with Albert Clinton Landsberg, then owner, and later with Lord Claud Phillimore and an important restoration of the exterior and interior was carried out by the current owners, descendants of the ancient patrons of Palladio.
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We continue with Vicenza and the Palladian Villas and, having left the Malcontenta, we go to visit another magnificent Palladio’s villa: Villa Almerico Capra, known as “la Rotonda”.
The villa was designed by Andrea Palladio for the bishop Paolo Almerico around 1570 but, unfortunately, the designer and bishop never had the pleasure of seeing the villa finished because it was completed under the supervision of the architect Vincenzo Scamozzi, for the noble Capra family.
The Rotonda has arcades of equal size on all four sides and the central hall of the square, symmetrical plan is covered by a dome, one of the first examples of a dome used in western residential architecture.
La Rotonda today is a private home, owned by the Valmarana family, which opened the villa to the public in 1986 and was inscribed in 1994 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the flag of the “City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.
Now we can continue to talk about Vicenza and the Palladian Villas such as Villa Godi Malinverni, the Salvi Lodge, Villa Trissino, Villa Gazzotti Grimani, Villa Pisani… but if you want, you can know them all on this Wikipedia page.
Thanks for your visit and we look forward to seeing you soon because your visit is particularly welcome.
Now we invite you to visit two other excellences of the Veneto: Cortina d’Ampezzo, a very elegant location, and discover how horses are born in the precious Murano Glass. Thank you.
Just a moment, please: if you liked Vicenza and the Palladian Villas, send the page link to those who will appreciate it and we will be very happy and if you want to write us: customercare@clubcavalloitalia.it We always answer. Thank you again.
