Villa Almerico Capra Valmarana "La Rotonda"

On top of a hill at the beginning of the Riviera Berica, Villa Valmarana, also known as "La Rotonda", has for centuries attracted the gaze of travellers with its graceful lines and shape. Palladio inserts the building in his treatise among town buildings, "fabbriche di città", because of its closeness to Vicenza. The villa is situated on a slight rise surrounded by hills, and was lapped at the time by the Bacchiglione, then a navigable river. Today the ascent to the villa from the river is cut off by the road and a wall breaks the natural roll of the hill. The building, begun between 1566 and 1568, appears to have been finished more or less in 1571. On the death of the owner, Canon Paolo Almerico, it was taken over by Mario and Oderico Capra in 1591. The Capra family completed building work around 1620. Four facades, with a six-columned Ionic pronaos, are repeated identical on all four sides. The Palladian project envisaged also the covering of the central hall with a semi-spherical dome, but Vincenzo Scamozzi, who completed the work, changed the original idea and structure. The semi-spherical ceiling is entirely decorated with frescoes by Alessandro Maganza, while the side walls have Greek divinities by the Frenchman Louis Dorigny of the 18th century. Also part of the group is the nearby "barchessa" designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi, and the noble family chapel built by Girolamo Albanese for the Count Marzio Capra between 1645 and 1663.
UNESCO Monument

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

Address: via della Rotonda