Vicenza

Vicenza (vēchān`tsä), city (1991 pop. 107,454), capital of Vicenza prov., Venetia, NE Italy. It is an agricultural, commercial, and highly diversified industrial center. Manufactures include machinery, chemicals, timber, and processed food. Originally a Roman town, later the seat of a Lombard duchy, Vicenza became a free commune and joined (12th cent.) the Lombard League. It was stormed by Emperor Frederick II in 1236 and later fell to various powers (including Verona and Milan) before being annexed (1404) by Venice. Andrea Palladio (1508–80) made Vicenza famous for his interpretation of classical architecture. The basilica, the Loggia del Capitano, the Teatro Olimpico, the Villa Capra (called La Rotonda), and the Palazzo Chiericato (now housing a museum), all designed by Palladio, inspired the Georgian style in England and the Colonial style in the United States. Vicenza also has a noted Gothic cathedral, with a polyptych (1356) by Lorenzo Veneziano. Bartolomeo Montagna was the founder, in the late 15th cent., of the Vicenza school of painting.

---

Vicenza

a city in NE Italy, in Veneto: home of the 16th-century architect Andrea Palladio and site of some of his finest works. Pop.: 107 223 (2001)

---

Vicenza 

a city in northeastern Italy, in the region of Venice, at the foot of the Alps on the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is the administrative center of the province of Vicenza. Population (1969), 111,200. The city is a transport junction on the Venice-Milan railroad line. The industries of the city include metallurgy, textile and agricultural machine construction, the manufacture of automobile chassis, chemical, food, and shoe industries, and the production of construction materials and ceramic wares.

In Vicenza there are remains of a Roman theater, bridge, and aqueduct, the Romanesque clock tower Torre di Piazza (12th century; additions made in the 14th and 15th centuries), the Gothic church of San Lorenzo (1280-1344), and palaces in the style of the Venetian Gothic and Renaissance. The appearance of Vicenza is marked by the buildings of A. Palladio—among them, the Basilica (rebuilt in 1549-1614 from the palace of Raggione); the Tiene and Chiericati palaces (today the municipal museum), both begun in 1550; Iseppo da Porto (begun in 1552); the Logia del Capitanio (1571); the Olimpico theater (1580-85, finished by the architect V. Scamozzi). Nearby is the villa Rotunda (1551-67, architect A. Palladio; finished in 1580-91 by the architect V. Scamozzi).

REFERENCE

Barbieri, F., R. Cevese, and L. Magagnato. Guida di Vicenza. Vicenza, 1956.