VILLA VALMARANA ZEN (1570 su disegno del Palladio)
BOLZANO VIC.NO - via Ponte 1 (loc. Lisiera)- tel. 0444 356920
Visits by appointment

"In Lisiera, a village near Vicenza there is the following building erected by the late lamented Sir Gio Francesco Valmarana".
The design of the Villa Valmarana was also published by Andrea Palladio in his treatise. The architect conceived this villa around 1563 just for Giovanni Francesco Valmarana who died three years later. His death stopped the works and they were resumed several years after (according to same scholars, even in the early seventeenth century), but they did not e0actly comply with the Master's drawings.
In fact, Palladio had designed two superimposing loggias with si0 columns of Ionic order crowned by a pediment; on the contrary only one loggia was erected to support the upper floor unfortunately flattened by the pediment. So the front looks weak and the ratio between horizontal and vertical developments appers to lack harmony.
In 1615 a family chapel was added. Then, in the following century the park was adorned with statues of Francesco Marinali the Younger.