A report on Vicenza, Padua, Andrea Palladio and Veneto

Padua (Padova ; Pàdova) is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy.

It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione River.

The city of Vicenza, with its 23 buildings designed by Palladio, and 24 Palladian villas of the Veneto are listed by UNESCO as part of a World Heritage Site named City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.

Padua stands on the Bacchiglione River, 40 km west of Venice and 29 km southeast of Vicenza.

Palladio was born on 30 November 1508 in Padua and was given the name Andrea di Pietro della Gondola.

The citizens of Vicetia received Roman citizenship and were inscribed into the Roman tribe Romilia in 49 BC. The city was known for its agriculture, brickworks, marble quarry, and wool industry and had some importance as a way-station on the important road from Mediolanum (Milan) to Aquileia, near Tergeste (Trieste), but it was overshadowed by its neighbor Patavium (Padua).

The 16th century was the time of Andrea Palladio, who left many outstanding examples of his art with palaces and villas in the city's territory, which before Palladio's passage, was arguably the most downtrodden and esthetically lacking city of the Veneto.

Este, Padua, Oderzo, Adria, Vicenza, Verona, and Altino became centres of Venetic culture.

Villa Barbaro (begun 1557) at Maser was an imposing suburban villa, built for the brothers Marcantonio and Daniele Barbaro, who were respectively occupied with politics and religious affairs in the Veneto, or Venice region.

Villa Contarini, at Piazzola sul Brenta, built in 1546 by Palladio and enlarged in the following centuries, is the most important.

He decorated large portions of the Palazzo Ducale and the decoration of many villas Palladian, including Villa Barbaro.