Villa Rotonda
The Villa Rotonda is the masterpiece of Palladio’s maturity, designed in 1566 for Paolo Americo,
who had moved back to Vicenza after a brilliant ecclesiastical career in the Vatican.
Consequently, the villa was built as a suburban residence rather then a villa-farm and originally there were no agricultural annexes. It was already inhabitable a few years later, but completed after Palladio’s death, when the villa belonged to the family Capra who commissioned Scamozzi to complete it. Nevertheless, Palladio’s plan was substantially respected.
A guided tour of Villa Rotonda focuses on the exceptional features which make the building so unique in Palladio’s work and in any epoch and place. It is a great pleasure to walk around the villa, enjoying its four temple-like fronts and the amazing relationship of the building with the surrounding landscape. When its interior is open, the visit includes the rooms of the main floor, where the decoration was made after Palladio died.