Like Palazzo Thiene, the Villa for Marcantonio and Adriano Thiene was also designed by the great Giulio Romano, the family architect who was in close contact with the Gonzagas of Mantua.​
 
At the beginning of my career as an architect, I was actually the director of the works here, knowing how to show the masons how to do without stone as much as possible, in favor of terracotta even in different shaped parts. 
 
I was a construction man myself. ​But soon Francesco died, at the court of France, and Marcantonio's son, Ottavio, moved the family investments to Scandiano. 
The construction site was interrupted, to be resumed much later in another direction ...