The Agricultural Wing That Became a Mansion

The building standing before you was not intended to be the mansion itself. Andrea Palladio originally planned the present structure as one of the agricultural wings for the Thiene brothers. However, sixteenth-century frescoes by Giovanni de Mio suggest that the building was intended to be more than a utilitarian space from an early stage.

The construction history follows a complex timeline beginning in the 1540s. Palladio worked on a design adapted from Giulio Romano, who died in Mantua in 1546 while the villa was still under construction. The project faced further disruption in 1547 when one of the Thiene brothers, Adriano, had to flee Vicenza, leading to a halt in building work.

Architectural details reveal the evolution of the site. Palladio's plans included two courtyards that were never completed, a feature that is rather unusual among his villas. The front and rear facades have been modified since the sixteenth century. While the front facade is probably the one closer to Palladio's intentions, its brickwork would originally have been rendered. Numerous holes in the structure were likely made during wartime to extract metal from the building's construction.

The garden facade is attributed to the eighteenth-century architect Francesco Muttoni. The thermal window in the gable and the portals in the center part are often noted for being out of place with Palladio's formal style. Since 1996, Villa Thiene has been conserved as part of a World Heritage Site, the "City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto."

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons