Basilica Palladiana Site Features

The problem Palladio was given was geometric, not aesthetic. The medieval hall behind was irregular -- its bays were of unequal width and not square to each other -- so any regular colonnade wrapped around it would visibly fail to line up.

His solution was the serliana: an arch carried on two small columns, flanked on each side by a flat-topped opening. The arch stays a fixed size while the flanking gaps stretch or shrink, so the module can absorb bays of different widths while reading as a perfectly regular rhythm. Nobody notices the irregularity, which is the entire achievement. The motif has been called the Palladian window ever since.

The loggia runs two storeys -- Doric below, Ionic above -- in white Piovene stone, and is structurally independent of the building it surrounds. It braces the old hall as well as dressing it.

The serliana rhythm

Walk the full length of the loggia and try to spot where the bays change width. You cannot, and that is the point.

The upper loggia walk

Going up and walking the first-floor gallery, out over Piazza dei Signori, is the best view in Vicenza and the best way to understand the building.

The copper hull

The great keel-shaped roof, rebuilt after 1945, reads from the surrounding hills as an upturned boat over the city.

The Torre Bissara

The 82-metre medieval bell tower left standing at the corner, older than the loggia and deliberately not absorbed into it.

The Basilica occupies one long side of Piazza dei Signori, with the Palazzo del Capitaniato facing it across the square and the smaller Piazza delle Erbe behind. Its bulk and its raised terrace mean it reads as a single object from three sides at once.