Villa Rotonda: Overall view

Vicenza, Italy - Villa Rotunda\u000a\u000aThe building that probably bears most lasting witness to Palladio's longing for antiquity is the Villa Almerico-Valmarana, the so-called Villa Rotonda or Villa Capra, near Vicenza, the last of Palladio's villas to be built. It is a simple, centralized structure of the kind repeatedly conceived but seldom realized in the Renaissance. At its centre is a circular sala, to which lead four narrow passages from four massive temple-front porticos approached by flights of steps. The cupola of the central room was originally based on that at the Pantheon, Rome, but in its final execution, supervised by Vincenzo Scamozzi, it was made shallower and thus less sacred in appearance. In its relationship to the surrounding countryside the Villa Rotonda is one of Palladio's masterpieces and was enormously influential. Set on a low hill with gentle approaches, it appears to draw in nature from every direction, just as, from inside, the building seems to push out into the surrounding landscape. It is an almost pure celebration of the dream of life in the country. A UNESCO World Heritage Site.