Exterior view

The sumptuous residence realised between 1570 and 1575 for the Vicentine noble Montano Barbarano is the only great city palace that Andrea Palladio succeeded in executing in its entirety. At least three different autograph projects survive, preserved in London, which document alternative hypotheses for the building’s plan, all quite different from the actual one and testimony to a complex design process.

In Palladio’s late period, a tendency towards increasing simplicity is evident in his design for the Palazzo Barbaran da Porto. Here, he used the motif of a two-storey palace fa�ade with corresponding bays, the horizontal emphasis of which respects the narrow street setting. A striking feature, also evident in the Loggia del Capitaniato, is the increasing use of decorative elements on the wall surfaces, which, in their horror vacui, display clear characteristics of Mannerism.

The photo shows the fa�ade.

View the ground plan of Palazzo Barbaran da Porto, Vicenza.