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).