Villa Saraceno is a
Palladian
Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...
Villa
A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...
in
Agugliaro
Agugliaro is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Vicenza, Veneto, north-eastern Italy. It is located east of road SP247 provincial road, between the Berici Hills and the Euganean Hills.
In the hamlet of Finale di Agugliaro is the 16th-cent ...
,
Province of Vicenza
The Province of Vicenza ( it, Provincia di Vicenza) is a province in the Veneto region in northern Italy. Its capital city is Vicenza.
The province has an area of 2,722.53 km², and a total population of 865,082 (as of 2017). There are 1 ...
, northern Italy. It was commissioned by the patrician Saraceno family.
History
Villa Saraceno has been dated to the 1540s, which makes it one of
Andrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio ( ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be one of th ...
's earlier works. In 1570, the building was illustrated in an imagined state in its architect's influential book ''
I quattro libri dell'architettura
''I quattro libri dell'architettura'' (''The Four Books of Architecture'') is a treatise on architecture by the architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580), written in Italian. It was first published in four volumes in 1570 in Venice, illustrated wi ...
''.
However, the villa had been constructed in a more modest form, and existing farm buildings were retained rather than being replaced by the architect's "trade-mark" wings. The reasons for the divergence between the published plan and the actual building are not entirely clear, but it is not the only one of Palladio's villas to be different from the published plan. The incomplete
Villa Trissino (Meledo di Sarego)
Villa Trissino is an incomplete patrician villa designed by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, situated in the hamlet of Meledo in the ''comune'' of Sarego in the Veneto, north-eastern Italy. It was intended for the brothers Ludovico ...
is another example.
Architecture
Villa Saraceno is one of Palladio's simpler creations. Like most of Palladio's villas it combines living space for its upper-class owners with space for uses related to agriculture. Above the
piano nobile
The ''piano nobile'' (Italian for "noble floor" or "noble level", also sometimes referred to by the corresponding French term, ''bel étage'') is the principal floor of a palazzo. This floor contains the main reception and bedrooms of the hou ...
is a floor which was designed as a granary.
As it stands today, the villa has a nineteenth-century wing which links it to a fifteenth-century building.
File:Villa Saraceno - plan Quattro Libri.jpg, Floor plan from ''I quattro libri dell'architettura
''I quattro libri dell'architettura'' (''The Four Books of Architecture'') is a treatise on architecture by the architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580), written in Italian. It was first published in four volumes in 1570 in Venice, illustrated wi ...
''
Villa Saraceno sezione Bertotti Scamozzi 1778.jpg, Cross section (drawing by Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi, 1778)
Restoration and current use of the villa
![VillaSaraCeno2007 07 11 4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/VillaSaraCeno2007_07_11_4.jpg)
The villa fell into a poor state of repair in the twentieth century but retained some of its original frescoes. It was acquired in 1989 by the British charity the
Landmark Trust
The Landmark Trust is a British architectural conservation, building conservation charitable organization, charity, founded in 1965 by John Smith (Conservative politician), Sir John and Lady Smith, that rescues buildings of historic interest or ...
. By 1994 the Trust had completed its restoration, converting the property, which includes adjacent farm-buildings not by Palladio, into a holiday home sleeping up to 16 people. The many people who have since stayed in the villa include
Witold Rybczynski
Witold Rybczynski (born 1 March 1943) is a Canadian American architect, professor and writer. He is currently the Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor Emeritus of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania.
Early life
Rybczynski was born in E ...
, who used it as a base when researching his book on Palladio.
The restoration has been praised for its sensitivity, and since 1996 the villa has enjoyed an additional level of protection, being conserved as one of the buildings which make up the
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
"
City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto". The principal rooms of the villa are open to the public on a limited basis, but the Trust attracted some criticism in the past for not promoting the building as part of the World Heritage Site.
Joint UNESCO-ICOMOS Mission to City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
2005 Report by UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
and ICOMOS
The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS; french: links=no, Conseil international des monuments et des sites) is a professional association that works for the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places around the worl ...
, retrieved 16 February 2008
In 2008, the Landmark Trust celebrated the 500th anniversary of Palladio's birth with a new guidebook for the Villa Saraceno in English and Italian and extended opportunities for visiting.
See also
* Palladian Villas of Veneto
* Palladian architecture
Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...
References
External links
Homes and villas abroad, Italy
Villa Saraceno - Finale di Agugliaro - (1543)
The architecture of the Villa Saraceno is set in context by the ''Centro Internazionali di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio'' (www.cisapalladio.org).
{{Authority control
Andrea Palladio buildings
Landmark Trust properties in Italy
Saraceno
Museums in Veneto
Palladian villas of Veneto