The City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto is a World Heritage Site protecting a cluster of works by the architect Andrea Palladio.

UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1994, At first the site was called "Vicenza, City of Palladio" and only buildings in the immediate area of Vicenza were included, various types of buildings were represented including the Teatro Olimpico, palazzi and a few villas.

Most of Palladio's surviving villas lay outside the site, however, in 1996 the number of Palladian villas included in the site was expanded to include those in other parts of the Veneto, the site was given its present name.

The term villa was used to describe a country house, often rich families in the Veneto also had a house in town called a palazzo, in most cases the owners named their palazzi and villas with the family surname, hence there is both a Palazzo Chiericati in Vicenza and a Villa Chiericati in the countryside, similarly there is a Palazzo Foscari in Venice and a Villa Foscari in the countryside.

Somewhat confusingly there are multiple Villas Pisani, including two by Palladio.

Villa Architecture:

By 1550 Palladio had produced a whole group of villas, whose scale and decoration can be seen as closely matching the wealth and social standing of the owners: the powerful and very rich Pisani, bankers and Venetian patricians, had huge vaults and a loggia façade realised with stone piers and rusticated Doric pilasters; the (briefly) wealthy minor noble and salt-tax farmer Taddeo Gazzotto in his villa at Bertesina, had pilasters executed in brick, though the capitals and bases were carved in stone; Biagio Saraceno at Finale had a loggia with three arched bays, but without any architectural order.

In the villa Saraceno as in the villa Poiana Palladio was able to give presence and dignity to an exterior simply by the placing and orchestration of windows, pediments, loggia arcades, his less wealthy patrons must have appreciated the possibility of being able to enjoy impressive buildings without having to spend much on stone and stone carving.

Palladio's reputation initially, and after his death has been founded on his skill as a designer of villas, considerable damage had been done to houses, barns and rural infrastructures during the War of the League of Cambrai (1509-1517).

Recovery of former levels of prosperity in the countryside was probably slow, and it was only in the 1540s with the growth of the urban market for foodstuffs and determination at government level to free Venice and the Veneto from dependence on imported grain, above all grain coming from the always threatening Ottoman state, that a massive investment in agriculture and the structures necessary for agricultural production gathers pace.

Landowners for decades had been steadily under stable Venetian rule, been buying up small holdings, and consolidating their estates not only by purchase but by swaps of substantial properties with the other landowners.

Investment in irrigation and land reclamation through drainage further increased the income of wealthy landowners.

Click here For Official Web Site of Palladian Villas.