Page 174 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Venice & The Veneto

172  THE VENE T O AREA B Y AREA

Exploring Vicenza P Casa Pigafetta
Contrà Pigafetta. No public access.
Vicenza, the great Palladian city, is celebrated all over the This Spanish Gothic building of
world for its architecture. It is also one of the wealthiest 1481 has clover-leaf balconies,
cities in the Veneto, with much to offer, from Roman and gryphon brackets and Moorish
Renaissance art (a combined museum ticket is available) windows. The owner, Antonio
to elegant shops selling fine goods. Pigafetta, sailed round the world
with Magellan in 1519–22,
being one of only 20 men
who survived the voyage.
E Museo Civico
Piazza Matteotti 37–9. Tel 0444 22
28 11. Open 9am–5pm Tue–Sun.
Closed 1 Jan, 25 Dec. & 7
∑ museicivicivicenza.it
This fine museum is housed in
Palladio’s Palazzo Chiericati, built
in 1550. Inside is a fresco by
Domenico Brusazorzi of a naked
charioteer, representing the
Sun, who appears to fly over the
ceiling of the entrance hall. In
the upstairs rooms are many
Gothic altarpieces from local
Statues gazing down from their pillars in the Piazza dei Signori churches, such as Hans Memling’s
Crucifix ion (1468–70), the central
P Piazza dei Signori architecture of Venice, a reminder panel of a triptych whose side
At the heart of Vicenza, this that Vicenza was part of the panels are now in New York.
square is dominated by the Venetian empire. In the later rooms are works
startling bulk of the Palazzo Several fine Palladian palazzi by the local artist Bartolomeo
della Ragione, often referred to stand on this street. The Palazzo Montagna (c.1450–1523),
as the “basilica”. Open to the Thiene (No. 12) of 1545–50, the including his remarkable Virgin
pub lic, its green, copper-clad Palazzo Porto Barbarano (No. 11) Enthroned with Child, St John the
roof is shaped like an upturned of 1570 and the Palazzo Iseppo Baptist and Saints Bartholomew,
boat with a balustrade bristling da Porto (No. 21) of 1552 all Augustine and Sebastian.
with the statues of Greek and illustrate the sheer variety of
Roman gods. The colonnades Palladio’s style – Classical R Santa Corona
were designed by Palladio in elements are common to all Open 9am–5pm Tue–Sun. &
1549 to support the city’s three, but each is unique. The This Gothic church was built in
15th-century town hall, which Palazzo Thiene reveals some 1261 to house a thorn from
had begun to subside. This was intriguing details of Palladio’s Christ’s Crown of Thorns, donated
his first public commission, and methods: though the building by Louis IX of France. In the Porto
his solution ensured the survival appears to be of stone, close Chapel is the tomb of Luigi da
of the building. inspection reveals that it is built of Porto (d.1529), author of the
The astonishingly slender cheap lightweight brick, cleverly novel Giulietta e Romeo, upon
Torre di Piazza alongside has rendered to look like masonry. which Shakespeare based his
stood since the 12th century.
Opposite is the elegant café
Gran Caffè Garibaldi, which is
next to Palladio’s Loggia del
Capitaniato (1571). The Loggia’s
upper rooms contain the city’s
council chamber.
P Contrà Porti
Contrà (an abbreviation of
contrada, or “district”) is the local
dialect word for “street”. On the
western side is a series of pretty
Gothic buildings with painted
windows and ornate balco nies,
including Palazzo Porto-Colleoni
(No. 19). These houses reflect the Brusazorzi’s ceiling fresco in the large entrance hall of the Museo Civico

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