Thiene (Vi).wmv
Thiene is a city and comune in the province of Vicenza, in northern Italy, located approximately 75 km west of Venice and 200 km east of Milan.
The city has an active and lively industrial sector, composed mainly of small-to-medium sized companies. It also has one the top ranked Italian boardwalks (listed as number 3 of the top 10). Thiene also has a tradition every 24 December to unite its community to sing a song indigenous only to this town.
The "Centro Europeo per i Mestieri del Patrimonio" is located at Villa Fabris.
Thiene is a lively busy town of more than 21,000 inhabitants, and dates back to Roman times. It was developed around a "castrum" and in Medieval times was transformed into a castle to defend the village and protect the local church: "Pieve di S. Maria".
In 1281 the Thiene Irrigation Ditch was dug, and numerous craft workshops and craftsmen's homes opened along its banks. A castrum, a castle and its parish church, a road and an irrigation ditch are those vital factors that gave life to Thiene. Its lucky geographic position and important road network for traffic from the Veneto Region, the Tyrol and beyond have all helped its growing prosperity.
Thiene became part of the Veneto Republic in 1404, which gave it the security and peace it needed to develop its economy and spread the arts and cultures. Markets, rural in medieval times and Free in 1492, then weekly every Monday, Festivals (St. John Baptist and the third Monday in October), workshops and stores all became the nerve centre for business for the town and larger territory.
Members of noble Vicenza families, middleclass merchants, artisans and professionals all invested money into buying, reclaiming and irrigating the land, trade, building work which would all change and enrich the appearance of streets, squares and corners of the town.
The old St. Mary's Parish Church became the town Church, beautiful villas and palazzos were built with their own private chapels (Villa Porto-Colleoni-Thiene and Palazzo Cornaggia) smart noble homes, important factories and farms.
Thiene gradually grew over the years, showing its genuine spirit and cultural, artistic and social soul in the dynamic and busy area that surrounds the town.
Still today Thiene is a valid example of the Veneto model, being a reference centre for the social and economic fabric of the northern part of the province of Vicenza.
Thiene è un comune di 23.171 abitanti della provincia di Vicenza.
La città di Thiene è situata al centro dell'ampia pianura nord vicentina, nella cosiddetta zona della Pedemontana, vicino allo sbocco della Val d'Astico, antica via per la Germania. Dista in linea d'aria 10 km da Schio, 20 da Vicenza e 22 da Bassano del Grappa. Fanno da corona: a est le colline pedemontane di Sarcedo e Fara Vicentino; a sud la pianura che scende con dolce inclinazione verso il capoluogo di Vicenza e i suoi colli Berici; a sud-ovest le prime propaggini dei monti Lessini, la zona collinare di Monte di Malo e Monteviale digradante dolcemente fino a Sovizzo; a nord-ovest il cono del Monte Summano e a nord l'Altopiano dei sette comuni.
Places to see in ( Vicenza - Italy ) Villa Almerico Capra detta La Rotonda
Places to see in ( Vicenza - Italy ) Villa Almerico Capra detta La Rotonda
Villa La Rotonda is a Renaissance villa just outside Vicenza in northern Italy, and designed by Andrea Palladio. The proper name is Villa Almerico Capra Valmarana, but it is also known as La Rotonda, Villa Rotonda, Villa Capra and Villa Almerico. The name Capra derives from the Capra brothers, who completed the building after it was ceded to them in 1592. Along with other works by Palladio, the building is conserved as part of the World Heritage Site City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.
In 1565 a priest, Paolo Almerico, on his retirement from the Vatican (as referendario apostolico of Pope Pius IV and afterwards Pius V), decided to return to his home town of Vicenza in the Venetian countryside and build a country house. This house, later known as 'La Rotonda', was to be one of Palladio's best-known legacies to the architectural world. Villa Capra may have inspired a thousand subsequent buildings, but the villa was itself inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.
The site selected was a hilltop just outside the city of Vicenza. Unlike some other Palladian villas, the building was not designed from the start to accommodate a working farm. This sophisticated building was designed for a site which was, in modern terminology, suburban. Palladio classed the building as a palazzo rather than a villa.
The design is for a completely symmetrical building having a square plan with four facades, each of which has a projecting portico. The whole is contained within an imaginary circle which touches each corner of the building and centres of the porticos. (illustration, left). The name La Rotonda refers to the central circular hall with its dome. To describe the villa, as a whole, as a 'rotonda' is technically incorrect, as the building is not circular but rather the intersection of a square with a cross. Each portico has steps leading up to it, and opens via a small cabinet or corridor to the circular domed central hall. This and all other rooms were proportioned with mathematical precision according to Palladio's own rules of architecture which he published in the Quattro Libri dell'Architettura.
The interior design of the Villa was to be as wonderful, if not more so, than the exterior. Alessandro and Giovanni Battista Maganza and Anselmo Canera were commissioned to paint frescoes in the principal salons. Among the four principal salons on the piano nobile are the West Salon (also called the Holy Room, because of the religious nature of its frescoes and ceiling), and the East Salon, which contains an allegorical life story of the first owner Paolo Almerico, his many admirable qualities portrayed in fresco.
From the porticos, wonderful views of the surrounding countryside can be seen; this is no coincidence as the Villa was designed to be in perfect harmony with the landscape. This was in complete contrast to such buildings as Villa Farnese of just 16 years earlier. Thus, while the house appears to be completely symmetrical, it actually has certain deviations, designed to allow each facade to complement the surrounding landscape and topography. Hence there are variations in the facades, in the width of steps, retaining walls, etc. In this way, the symmetry of the architecture allows for the asymmetry of the landscape, and creates a seemingly symmetrical whole. The landscape is a panoramic vision of trees and meadows and woods, with the distant Vicenza on the horizon.
The northwest portico is set onto the hill as the termination of a straight carriage drive from the principal gates. This carriageway is an avenue between the service blocks, built by the Capra brothers who acquired the villa in 1591; they commissioned Vincenzo Scamozzi to complete the villa and construct the range of staff and agricultural buildings. As one approaches the villa from this angle, one is deliberately made to feel one is ascending from some less worthy place to a temple on high. This same view in reverse, from the villa, highlights a classical chapel on the edge of Vicenza, thus villa and town are united.
( Vicenza - Italy ) is well know as a tourist destination because of the variety of places you can enjoy while you are visiting Vicenza . Through a series of videos we will try to show you recommended places to visit in Vicenza - Italy
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