The Basilica Palladiana is a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

building in the central Piazza dei Signori in

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

, north-eastern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. The most notable feature of the edifice is the

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior Long gallery, gallery or corridor, often on an upper level, sometimes on the ground level of a building. The corridor is open to the elements because its outer wall is only parti ...

, which shows one of the first examples of what have come to be known as the

Palladian window Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Republic of Venice, Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetr ...

, designed by a young

Andrea Palladio Andrea Palladio ( , ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be on ...

, whose work in architecture was to have a significant effect on the field during the Renaissance and later periods. Since 1994, the Basilica Palladiana, together with other Palladian buildings in and around Vicenza, has been part of the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

" City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto".

History

The building was originally constructed in the 15th century and was known as the Palazzo della Ragione, having been designed by Domenico da Venezia to include two pre-existing public palazzi. The building, which was in the

Gothic style Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque ar ...

, served as the seat of government and also housed a number of shops on the ground floor. The -tall Torre Bissara precedes this structure, as it is known from as early as 1172; however, its height was increased on this occasion, and its

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was main ...

was finished in 1444. It has five bells in the chord of E. The 15th-century edifice had an upside-down cover, partly supported by large

archivolt An archivolt (or voussure) is an ornamental Molding (decorative), moulding or band following the curve on the underside of an arch. It is composed of bands of ornamental mouldings (or other architectural elements) surrounding an arched opening, ...

s, inspired by the one built in 1306 for the eponymous building of

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

. The Gothic façade was in

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

and ''gialletto'' marble of Verona, and is still visible behind the Palladio addition. A double order of columns was built by Tommaso Formenton in 1481–1494 to surround the palace. However, two years after its completion, the south-western corner collapsed. In the following decades, the Vicentine government called in architects such as Antonio Rizzo, Giorgio Spavento, Antonio Scarpagnino, Jacopo Sansovino,

Sebastiano Serlio Sebastiano Serlio (6 September 1475 – c. 1554) was an Italian Mannerist architect, who was part of the Italian team building the Palace of Fontainebleau. Serlio helped canonize the classical orders of architecture in his influential treatise ...

Michele Sanmicheli Michele Sanmicheli, sometimes also transcribed as Sammicheli, Sanmichele or Sammichele (Verona, 1484There is no certainty about the date of his birth. Vasari reports 1484, while architectural historian Giulio Sancassani, through a study of his fat ...

and

Giulio Romano Giulio Pippi ( – 1 November 1546), known as Giulio Romano and Jules Romain ( , ; ), was an Italian Renaissance painter and architect. He was a pupil of Raphael, and his stylistic deviations from High Renaissance classicism help define the ...

to propose a reconstruction plan. In 1546, the Council of One Hundred chose a 40-year-old local architect,

, to reconstruct the building starting from April 1549. Palladio added a new outer shell of marble classical forms, a loggia and a

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

that now obscure the original Gothic architecture. He also dubbed the building a "basilica", after the ancient Roman civil structures of that name. The Basilica was an expensive project (some 60,000 ducats once finished) and took a long time to complete. Palladio received for the work an income of five ducats a month for most of his life. In 1614—thirty years after his death—the building was completed, with the finishing of the main façade on Piazza delle Erbe.

Description

Drawings by Palladio, from his original proposal of 1546 to the final construction, have been preserved. His solution, which also encompasses the necessary measure to adapt the addition to the pre-existing structure, is based on the so-called serliana: this is a repetitive structure in which round arches are flanked by rectangular openings; the latter were of different size, in order to match the variable size of the internal

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

. In the angular arcades, the

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...

openings become very narrow. The serliana had been already used in the Veneto some years before by Jacopo Sansovino for his

Biblioteca Marciana The Marciana Library or Library of Saint Mark (, but in historical documents commonly referred to as the ) is a public library in Venice, Italy. It is one of the earliest surviving public libraries and repositories for manuscripts in Italy and ...

(1537), as well as in the reconstruction of the Polirone Abbey by Giulio Romano (1540). The loggias in the lower floor were in the

Doric order The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...

; the associated

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

has a frieze which alternates

metope A metope (; ) is a rectangular architectural element of the Doric order, filling the space between triglyphs in a frieze , a decorative band above an architrave. In earlier wooden buildings the spaces between triglyphs were first open, and ...

(decorated by dishes and bucrania) and

triglyph Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...

s. The upper-floor loggias, by contrast, are in the

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic classical order, orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric order, Doric and the Corinthian order, Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan order, Tuscan (a plainer Doric) ...

, with a continuous frieze entablature. The

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

has statues by Giovanni Battista Albanese, Grazioli and Lorenzo Rubini. The clocktower has five bells in the chord of E major.

Conservation

Since 1994 the Basilica has been protected as part of the

also including the other Palladian buildings of Vicenza. The building now often hosts exhibitions in its large hall used for civic events.

Restoration

A large restoration project started in 2007. In 2014 it won the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award.

Gallery

Torre Bissara e Basilica Palladiana Vicenza.jpg, Clocktower ('' Torre Bissara'') and loggia of the Basilica Palladiana Palladio Palazzo della Ragione upper.jpg, Upper level loggia Basilica Palladiana 1.jpg, Ground floor Basilica di Vicenza-1.jpg, A night view of the ''Basilica Palladiana'' Basilica Palladiana, view from monte berico.JPG, Basilica Palladiana, view from ''Monte Berico'' Palazzo della Ragione.gif, Detail of the upper loggia with two serliana (drawn from I quattro libri dell'architettura)

References

External links

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Logge of the Palazzo della Ragione - Vicenza - (1546–1549)
{{Authority control Buildings and structures completed in 1172 Towers completed in the 12th century Buildings and structures completed in 1494 Houses completed in 1614 Palladiana Palaces in Vicenza Andrea Palladio buildings Renaissance architecture in Vicenza 1614 establishments in Italy Loggias in Italy