Quinto Vicentino, 35 m/115 feet above sea level, Piazza IV Novembre; train station at Vicenza about 10 km/6 miles to the southwest.
In his Second Book of Architecture [chapter XV, Plate 47] Andrea Palladio describes the “fabrick belonging to Count Ottavie Thiene at Quinto, his villa” between the river Tesina and one of its branches; the original design, which some believe is the continuation, in 1542, of a project started by Giulio Romano, is grand in scale with a long and articulated colonnade, the classical Greek temple front at the center and two large buildings to the sides.
The project was never fully realized due to the death in 1550 of Adriano Thiene; what remains is only one of the side structures, still in brick, completed only during the early eighteenth century by Francesco Muttoni, and which rotates the design 90° from the original design: one side of the villa became the main facade of the structure, which today is used as the town hall of the municipality of Quinto Vicentino.
Latest visit: 3 February 2013
