Teatro Olimpico

In 1555 a group of nobles and artists founded the "Accademia Olimpica". One of these, Palladio, as early as 1579 proposed building a permanent theatre to put on plays, as the wooden structure he had designed inside the Palazzo della Ragione had been dismantled.
Palladio's proposal was accepted and in February, 1580, building work began in the courtyard of the 13th century Castello del Territorio. A few months later Andrea Palladio died and the job went to his son Silla, but very soon the whole responsibility for the work went to Vincenzo Scamozzi. The Olympic Theatre is built on the plan of Roman theatres: the "cavea", foreshortened for reasons of space, instead of being semi-circular is semi-elliptical. The "Frons Scenae" appears as a Triumphal Arch, and the central arch appears to be its "Porta Regia", but at the same time reflects the tri-partitite structure of the great facades of the Palladian villas.
Palladio pushed the front of the stage back: the lower part has round columns which retreat and become half-columns until they disappear on the attic floor.
The structures are in plastered brick and the statues are in plaster too.
The City of Thebes with its seven streets was designed by Scamozzi in wood and stucco as the ideal city. In it the central street is actually only twelve metres long, but appears much longer because of the play of perspective: the floor rises, the sky descends, the buildings decorated with plaster statues and gauze come closer and diminish in size
UNESCO Monument

Source: taken from "Vicenza, City of Palladio", Vicenza City Council, Cultural and Tourist Council Department

Address: piazza Matteotti