La Rotonda

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Villa Capra “La Rotonda” is known under several names: La Rotonda, Villa Rotonda, Villa Capra, and Villa Almerico. It is a Renaissance villa in northern Italy outside of Vicenza, designed by Andrea Palladio. It 1994, the building became part of the World Heritage Site “City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto,” along with other works by Palladio. The building took 25 years to be completed beginning in 1567 by Andrea Palladio and ending in 1592 with, the second architect, Vincenzo Scamozzi. . The name “La Rotunda” is in reference to the central circular hall with its dome. Villa Capra “La Rotunda” exterior resembles that of the High Roman Empire period, more closely inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. The design of the villa was …show more content…

Vincenzo Scamozzi, the second architect of the villa, made significant changes to the original plans. He wanted to modify the two-story centre hall and intended to cover it by a high-circular dome, but designed a lower dome with an oculus inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. The dome was finally completed with a cupola. The interior is the central, circular hall, surrounded by balcony and covered by the domed ceiling, soaring the full height of the main house up to the cupola, with walls decorated with trompe l’oeil. (Villa Capra "La Rotonda") The northwest portico is set on a hill , creating anyone who ascends from this angle a feeling that one is ascending from some less worthy place to a temple on …show more content…

Its pupose was to house Paolo Almerico. Palladio describes Paolo Almerico’s request to him: “Paolo Almerico... who was not only a papal prelate but also an intellectual, a member of a refined cultural circle of that time, a poet and a man of letters, who wanted to build for himself a ‘villa’, just out of Vicenza...” (Andrea Palladio). Palladio classed the building as a “palazzo” rather than a villa. Villa Capra “La Rotonda” was completed by the Capra brothers after it was ceded to them in 1591 giving it the name “Capra.” When Paolo Almerico commissioned the buliding of the villa, he would’ve never imagined that the villa would become one of the most inspirational architectural prototypes for the next five hundred plus years. (italian-architecture.info) Now the villa is one of the well known legacies in to the architectural

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