The Basilica Palladiana is a Renaissance building in the central Piazza dei Signori in Vicenza, north-eastern Italy. The most notable feature of the edifice is the loggia, 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 Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

, 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 one of th ...

, 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 World Heritage Site "

City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto is a World Heritage Site in Italy, which protects buildings by the architect Andrea Palladio. UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1994. At first the site was called " ...

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 or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

, served as the seat of government and also housed a number of shops on the ground floor. The -tall

Torre Bissara Torre Bissara is a tower in Piazza dei Signori, Vicenza, Italy. History Bissara Tower is a civic tower that overlooks Piazza dei Signori, alongside the famous Basilica Palladiana. With its 82 meters is one of the tallest buildings in Vice ...

precedes this structure, as it is known from as early as 1172; however, its height was increased on this occasion, and its pinnacle 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 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, corresponding to the ...

s, inspired by the one built in 1306 for the eponymous building of Padua. 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 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...

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 Jacopo d'Antonio Sansovino (2 July 1486 – 27 November 1570) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor and architect, best known for his works around the Piazza San Marco in Venice. These are crucial works in the history of Venetian Renaissance arch ...

, Sebastiano Serlio, Michele Sanmicheli and Giulio Romano 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 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 The ducat () coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages from the 13th to 19th centuries. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wi ...

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 A Venetian window (also known as a Serlian window) is a large tripartite window which is a key element in Palladian architecture. Although Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554) did not invent it, the window features largely in the work of the Italian ar ...

: this is a repetitive structure in which

round arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vau ...

es 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, circular bay with a na ...

. In the angular arcades, the

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can als ...

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 ( it, italic=no, Biblioteca Marciana, but in historical documents commonly referred to as ) is a public library in Venice, Italy. It is one of the earliest surviving public libraries and repositorie ...

(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 associated entablature has a frieze which alternates metope (decorated by dishes and

bucrania Bucranium (plural ''bucrania''; Latin, from Greek ''βουκράνιον'', referring to the skull of an ox) was a form of carved decoration commonly used in Classical architecture. The name is generally considered to originate with the practi ...

) and triglyphs. The upper-floor loggias, by contrast, are in the Ionic order, with a continuous frieze entablature. The

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the 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/breast'). Wh ...

has statues by

Giovanni Battista Albanese Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

, 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 World Heritage Site 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 (''

'') 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

(drawn from I quattro libri dell'architettura)

References

External links

*
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