Palazzo Thiene
| City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto | |
|---|---|
| Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List | |
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| Type | Architectural |
| Criteria | C (i) (ii) |
| Reference | 712 |
| UNESCO region | Europe and North America |
| Inscription history | |
| Inscription | 1994 (18th Session) |
Palazzo Thiene is a 15th-16th-century palace in Vicenza, northern Italy, designed for Marcantonio and Adriano Thiene, probably by Giulio Romano, in 1542, and revised during construction from 1544 by Andrea Palladio.
In 1994 the palace was included in the "Vicenza, city of Palladio" World Heritage Site by UNESCO. In 1996 the World Heritage Site was renamed "City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto", and it was expanded to include outlying villas (one of which is the Thiene brothers' country home, the Villa Thiene). The palace is used as the historic headquarters of a bank and it also hosts some exhibitions and culture events.
The palazzo was the headquarter of Banca Popolare di Vicenza,
The original Gothic palace was committed by Lodovico Thiene to Lorenzo da Bologna in 1490, with an East front on contrà Porti made of bricks squared by angular lesenes worked at "diamond edge", with a portal by Tommaso da Lugano and a triple window (trifora) made in rose marble.
In October 1542 Marcantonio and Adriano Thiene began to remodel their 15th century (Quattrocento) family palace in a grandiose project, which would have occupied an entire city block of 54 x 62 metres and faced onto Vicenza’s principal artery (today’s Corso Palladio).
The rich, powerful and sophisticated Thiene brothers belonged to that great Italian nobility which could move with ease among Europe’s most important courts: they therefore required a domestic stage adequate for the cosmopolitan expectations of their guests who might visit them. At the same time, as exponents of a well-defined, political faction in the city’s , they desired a princely palace to emphasise their proper role in the city itself, as the sign of their quasi-seigniorial power.
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