Villa Valmarana Zen in Lisiera

Palladian Routes
Sep 21, 2023
1 min read

Listen, as if it were Andrea Palladio telling...

Gianfrancesco Valmarana was the brother of Giovanni Alvise, among the first great men who believed in me, for whose family I designed the Palazzo al Pozzo Rosso a couple of years later.

The Valmaranas had long owned a large fiefdom in Lisiera, which was being completely reorganized at that time.

I was obviously involved, in particular in the reconstruction of the villa, which resembled when I saw it Villa Trissino in Cricoli, the place where I was born like Palladio.

In this case, however, between the two towers I would have placed a loggia with columns in a double Ionic order, higher than the towers, so as to "pacify" the architecture, making the castle disappear.

I would have asked, because there is a difference from the drawing to reality, as often happens.

And the true architect is time, fate, chance, God, to whom I acted as assistant for what was useful.

Gianfrancesco died the year after my project and the construction site stopped.

It was partly taken up by Leonardo, the son of Giovanni Alvise who encounters various other works of mine in different ways.

And others took it up a few decades after my passing, making it a villa different from the others, with that almost noble floor squashed above the first loggia and under the gable, at the height of the towers.

The result is an original and new villa in my eyes.

Humbly, I recognize that I am a chisel in the wise hands of Time and History...