Villa Capra "La Rotonda" is a masterpiece of Andrea Palladio, located just outside the center of Vicenza, in the most beautiful area of the town.

The green and serene place where it stands still preserves great charm which already bewitched travelers about , such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

It's considered the most famous Venetian Villa in the world, is protected by UNESCO (as all the historical center of the city of Vicenza and numerous Villas), and is studied and imitated by architects from all over the globe, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world. The White House in Washington has inspired this home with unique characteristics.

 
It consists in a circular body, ending with a dome, encased in a cube, and has four all equal entrances, one for each side, preceded by stairways and culminating in a colonnaded loggia, crowned by a pediment in classic style. The revenues are rotated 45 degrees with respect to each cardinal point, because of very precise calculations made by the great architect, for very specific reasons of health and exposure to the sun and the winds.

Admiring it, in its perfection and originality, it makes an hypnotic effect, because, with its four entrances, the eye tends to run around endlessly.
 
Built for a man of the Church, Cardinal and diplomat Paolo Almerico from Vicenza, who commissioned it to Palladio in 1565,  it had to be his residence and at the same time spiritual retreat and place suitable to studies and meditations, once retired after many years passed in the Vatican at the service of two popes.

Palladio, perfectly interpreted as usual the personality and needs of the client, so. not surprisingly, this residence is a mix between a house and a sacred temple.
 
Palladio studied during all his life the classical Greek and Roman monuments and reinterpreted with his inimitable taste especially the ancient temples, and also architectural details of the thermal plants; so, he often took them as a model to build villas in the countryside, urban palaces, and churches. Villa Capra is one of its most finished creations in this sense, ripe fruit of his revolutionary conception of architecture, created by combining the love for the classics with the most daring and elegant modernity and functionality.
 
The interior is certainly not less beautiful then the exterior: entering you remain absolutely fascinated by the large circular room, high up to the top of the dome, richly painted and decorated with stucco by great visual impact.

This Villa,  like most of the Veneto Villas, is privately owned, in this case by Valmarana family, which is for many centuries one of the most important aristocratic families of Vicenza.
 
Villa Capra is open vor the visits every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

At a distance of few hundred meters, another amazing Venetian Villa absolute worth a visit : Villa Valmarana "Ai Nani".

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKTempEKOw0