Associazione Città Italiane Patrimonio Mondiale UNESCO
The city of Vicenza and the Palladian villas of the Veneto
Associazione Città Italiane Patrimonio Unesco
Palazzo Porto in Piazza Castello
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The impressive section of palace which forms the backdrop to Piazza del Castello is the compelling testimony to the unfortunate demise of a Palladian initiative. To the left of the fragment is clearly visible the old Quattrocento home of the Porto family, which should have been progressively demolished as construction of the new palace advanced: given the results one cannot but appreciate the farsighted prudence of the patron, Alessandro Porto. The dating is uncertain, though undoubtedly after 1570, both because the Palazzo was not included in the Quattro Libri (published in Venice that same year) and also because Alessandro inherited the family properties in Piazza Castello after the death of his father Benedetto, at the time of the division of the family goods with his brothers Orazio and Pompeo in 1571.
Francesco Thiene, the owner of the homonymous Palazzo by Palladio at the other end of the Piazza, married Isabella Porto, Alessandro’s sister, and just as in the cases of Iseppo Porto and his brothers-in-law Marcantonio and Adriano Thiene, it was perhaps really the rivalry between the two families which instigated the unusual dimensions of Palazzo Porto. On the other hand, the location of the Palazzo, as backdrop to the Piazza, made necessary an accentuated monumentality capable of dominating this great, open, fronting space: a logic with which Palladio had experimented a few years previously in the Loggia del Capitaniato, in the Piazza dei Signori.
In all probability the Palazzo was intended to grow to seven bays in length and have a courtyard concluding in an exedra, as analysis of the surviving walls demonstrates. It is unclear what circumstances halted the construction, which Vincenzo Scamozzi declares he had personally carried to its present, partial, conclusion in 1615.
Address
Piazza del Castello, 18 Vicenza
Visit
Outside visits only.
path: Index > English > Italian Sites > The city of Vicenza and the Palladian villas of the Veneto > Private palaces > Palazzo Porto in piazza Castello
The city of Vicenza and the Palladian villas of the Veneto
Jump the contents and go to the summary
Palazzo Porto in piazza Castello
The impressive section of palace which forms the backdrop to Piazza del Castello is the compelling testimony to the unfortunate demise of a Palladian initiative. To the left of the fragment is clearly visible the old Quattrocento home of the Porto family, which should have been progressively demolished as construction of the new palace advanced: given the results one cannot but appreciate the farsighted prudence of the patron, Alessandro Porto. The dating is uncertain, though undoubtedly after 1570, both because the Palazzo was not included in the Quattro Libri (published in Venice that same year) and also because Alessandro inherited the family properties in Piazza Castello after the death of his father Benedetto, at the time of the division of the family goods with his brothers Orazio and Pompeo in 1571.
Francesco Thiene, the owner of the homonymous Palazzo by Palladio at the other end of the Piazza, married Isabella Porto, Alessandro’s sister, and just as in the cases of Iseppo Porto and his brothers-in-law Marcantonio and Adriano Thiene, it was perhaps really the rivalry between the two families which instigated the unusual dimensions of Palazzo Porto. On the other hand, the location of the Palazzo, as backdrop to the Piazza, made necessary an accentuated monumentality capable of dominating this great, open, fronting space: a logic with which Palladio had experimented a few years previously in the Loggia del Capitaniato, in the Piazza dei Signori.
In all probability the Palazzo was intended to grow to seven bays in length and have a courtyard concluding in an exedra, as analysis of the surviving walls demonstrates. It is unclear what circumstances halted the construction, which Vincenzo Scamozzi declares he had personally carried to its present, partial, conclusion in 1615.
Address
Piazza del Castello, 18 Vicenza
Visit
Outside visits only.