Explorer Vicence

The Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza is an indoor theatre built in 1580–1585 to the last design of Andrea Palladio and completed after his death. Its stage set by Vincenzo Scamozzi, wooden streets in forced perspective behind a classical stage front, dates from the first performance in 1585 and is the oldest surviving stage set.

Palazzo Chiericati is a Renaissance palace in Vicenza, designed by Andrea Palladio in 1550 for Count Girolamo Chiericati and completed in the late 17th century. Its front of two superimposed colonnades faces Piazza Matteotti. Since 1855 it has housed the city's Museo Civico, with paintings, sculpture, drawings and prints.

Santa Corona is a Gothic brick church in Vicenza, begun in 1261 by the Dominicans to hold a thorn from Christ's crown given by King Louis IX of France. Inside are Giovanni Bellini's Baptism of Christ, Paolo Veronese's Adoration of the Magi and the Valmarana Chapel designed by Andrea Palladio. It is run as part of the city's museums.

The Basilica Palladiana is the former town hall on Piazza dei Signori in Vicenza. From 1549 Andrea Palladio wrapped the 15th-century Gothic Palazzo della Ragione in two storeys of marble loggias with arched openings, finished in 1614. Its great hall hosts exhibitions, and the upper terrace looks over the square beside the Torre Bissara.

Vicenza Cathedral, dedicated to the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, is the seat of the Bishop of Vicenza. Its Gothic marble façade is attributed to Domenico da Venezia, and its dome follows a design by Andrea Palladio. Bombs in the Second World War destroyed most of the building, which was rebuilt behind the surviving façade.

The Basilica of Monte Berico is a Marian sanctuary on the hill above Vicenza, founded after reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1426 and 1428. The present Baroque church, with its dome and statues, was designed by Carlo Borella in 1688. A hall beside it holds Paolo Veronese's painting of the Supper of Saint Gregory the Great.

Villa La Rotonda is a country house on a hill just outside Vicenza, designed by Andrea Palladio for the cleric Paolo Almerico and begun in 1567. It is a square block with a columned portico on each of its four sides around a central domed hall. Visitors see the gardens and the main floor; it is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.