Vicenza is associated with outstanding late Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, who is actually best known from Venice (San Giorgio Maggiore Church and Basilica Il Redentore). However this is not how it started. A humble stonemason with a high sense for perfection made a real revolution in the architecture, known today as Palladian. One can trace his style actually globally, starting from Veneto province to London and Washington.
When Andrea Palladio escaped from his native Padua in 1520s, few could have guessed that the stonemason with inclination for mathematics and and eye to harmony and perfection, would transform Vicenza and conquer the world starting with Venice. His style became the cornerstone of the modern European architecture with its harmonious ratios, pleasing symmetries, synthesis of classical Roman and Hellenic past without copying it, combination of practicality and incomparable elegance.
On top his style was ‘affordable’. When lacking funds on marble, he came up with superior solutions in such fashion that constrains were paving the road to innovation. His genius turned Vicenza and its surrounding villas into a place worth spending time in. You can really enjoy your visit if you add up the dynamic exhibitions, cozy cafes, bars and restaurants, live theatre performances on the most extraordinary Renaissance stage of the Teatro Olympico, inspired by the Roman amphitheaters.
