Palazzo del Capitaniato, Vicenza, Italy

The palazzo del Capitaniato was designed by Andrea Palladio in 1565 and built between 1571 and 1572. The palazzo is currently used by the town council. It was decorated by Lorenzo Rubini and, in the interior, with frescoes by Giovanni Antonio Fasolo. Since 1994 the palace has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the 'City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto'.

The Palladian loggia replaced an analogous building which had stood on the same site from the Middle Ages, and which had already been reconstructed at least twice during the Cinquecento: a covered public loggia on the ground floor and an audience hall on the upper storey. The new construction became economically viable in April 1571 and works began immediately. Palladio supplied the last drawings for the moulding templates in March 1572 and by the end of that year the building would have been roofed, since Giannantonio Fasolo could paint the lacunars of the audience hall while Lorenzo Rubini could execute the stuccoes and statues.

While the upper hall displays a flat, coffered ceiling, the ground-floor loggia has a sophisticated vault covering, certainly to better sustain the weight of the hall. The overall design is extremely sophisticated, as witnessed for example by the portals which open within the niches and follow their curvature.

User Reviews

Alessandro Zorzi (2 years ago)
Il palazzo del Capitaniato, noto anche come loggia del Capitaniato o loggia Bernarda, è un palazzo di Andrea Palladio che si affaccia sulla centrale Piazza dei Signori a Vicenza, di fronte alla Basilica Palladiana, attualmente sede del consiglio comunale cittadino. Fu decorato da Lorenzo Rubini, e all'interno i dipinti sono di Giovanni Antonio Fasolo. Il palazzo fu progettato nel 1565 e costruito dal 1571 al 1572. Dal 1994 è, con le altre architetture di Palladio a Vicenza, nella lista dei patrimoni dell'umanità dell'UNESCO. Nella catalogazione dei beni culturali, in Italia, questo palazzo è un'opera d'arte che viene catalogata nei tipi di beni immobili, architettura di tipo A.

D S (3 years ago)
Must see in Vicenza

Zoltán Varga (4 years ago)
Fascinating!

Dario Rodighiero (5 years ago)
Another masterpiece of Palladio

Marco Simonetto (5 years ago)

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Broch of Gurness

The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village. Settlement here began sometime between 500 and 200 BC. At the centre of the settlement is a stone tower or broch, which once probably reached a height of around 10 metres. Its interior is divided into sections by upright slabs. The tower features two skins of drystone walls, with stone-floored galleries in between. These are accessed by steps. Stone ledges suggest that there was once an upper storey with a timber floor. The roof would have been thatched, surrounded by a wall walk linked by stairs to the ground floor. The broch features two hearths and a subterranean stone cistern with steps leading down into it. It is thought to have some religious significance, relating to an Iron Age cult of the underground.

The remains of the central tower are up to 3.6 metres high, and the stone walls are up to 4.1 metres thick. The tower was likely inhabited by the principal family or clan of the area but also served as a last resort for the village in case of an attack.

The broch continued to be inhabited while it began to collapse and the original structures were altered. The cistern was filled in and the interior was repartitioned. The ruin visible today reflects this secondary phase of the broch's use.

The site is surrounded by three ditches cut out of the rock with stone ramparts, encircling an area of around 45 metres diameter. The remains of numerous small stone dwellings with small yards and sheds can be found between the inner ditch and the tower. These were built after the tower, but were a part of the settlement's initial conception. A 'main street' connects the outer entrance to the broch. The settlement is the best-preserved of all broch villages.

Pieces of a Roman amphora dating to before 60 AD were found here, lending weight to the record that a 'King of Orkney' submitted to Emperor Claudius at Colchester in 43 AD.

At some point after 100 AD the broch was abandoned and the ditches filled in. It is thought that settlement at the broch continued into the 5th century AD, the period known as Pictish times. By that time the broch was not used anymore and some of its stones were reused to build smaller dwellings on top of the earlier buildings. Until about the 8th century, the site was just a single farmstead.

In the 9th century, a Norse woman was buried at the site in a stone-lined grave with two bronze brooches and a sickle and knife made from iron. Other finds suggest that Norse men were buried here too.

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