Villa Almerico Capra detta "La Rotonda"

At the beginning of the Riviera Berica road, on a hill, Villa Capra Valmarana “La Rotonda” has been seducing travellers for centuries thanks to its lines and volumes. Palladio includes the factory in the part of the treatise dedicated to the city, thanks to its proximity to Vicenza.

The architect describes its situation as “advantagious and delicious as can be desir’d, being feated on a hillock of a most easie ascent at the foot of which runs the Bacchilione, a navigable river. On the other side, it is surrounded by several hills, which seem to form a great Theatre”.

Today the ascent to the villa from the river is cut off from the road by a wall, which interrupts the natural slope of the hill. The construction of the building started between 1566 and 1568, but came to a halt in 1571. At the death of the client, Canon Paul Almerico, the villa was taken over by Mario and Odorico Capra in 1591.

The Capra family completed the works around 1620. There are four identical façades with hexastyle ionic porticos around the central body. Palladio planned to cover the central hall with a semi-spherical dome, but it was Vincenzo Scamozzi who ultimately finished the work, thus changing the original design that led to a different structure. Inside, the semi-spherical ceiling is decorated with frescoes by Alessandro Maganza, whereas on the side walls are depicted Greek gods painted in the eighteenth century by the French painter Louis Dorigny