- Palazzo Chiericati
Palazzo Chiericati is a
Renaissance palace inVicenza (northernItaly ), designed byAndrea Palladio .History
The Palazzo was commissioned from Palladio by Count Girolamo Chiericati. The architect started the works in
1550 , some further work was completed under the patronage of Chiericati's son and heir Valerio. However, the palazzo was not finally completed until circa 1680, possibly byCarlo Borella .Palladio also designed a country home, theVilla Chiericati , for the family.The palace was built in an area called "piazza dell'Isola" ("island square", currently Piazza Matteotti), which housed the wood and cattle market. In that period it was that an islet surrounded by the Retrone and Bacchiglione streams, and to protect the structure from the frequent floods, Palladio designed it on an elevated position: the entrance could be accessed by a triple Classic-style staircase.
Architectural details
The palace's principal façade is composed of three bays, the central bay projecting slightly. The two end bays have logge on the
piano nobile level, while the central bay is closed. The façade has two superimposed orders of columns, Doric on the lower level with Ionic above. The roofline is decorated by statuary.Conservation
Since
1855 it has been the Museo Civico ("Town Museum") and, more recently, the City's art Gallery. It has received international protection since 1994, along with the other Palladian buildings of Vicenza, as part of aWorld Heritage Site . (The site originally designated was "Vicenza, City of Palladio" which included the city of Vicenza and its immediate surroundings. In 1996UNESCO expanded the World Heritage Site to include villas outside the core area and renamed it "City of Vicenza and thePalladian Villas of the Veneto ").External links
* [http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Palazzo_Chiericati.html Great buildings online] retrieved 18.VIII.06
* [http://www.cisapalladio.org/veneto/scheda.php?sezione=4&architettura=57&lingua=e Palazzo Chiericati - Vicenza - (1550)] Description, photographs and location map it icon en icon
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
