The Palladian villas are a set of Venetian villas (of the territory of the Republic of Venice), mostly concentrated in the province of Vicenza, built around the mid-sixteenth century by the architect Andrea Palladio for the most important families of the place, but also some members of the upper middle class of the Venetian Republic. Along with the city of Vicenza with its 23 Palladian palaces, 24 Venetian villas were included, between 1994 and 1996, in the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Palladian villas are distinguished from Roman villas and the Medici Tuscan villas: they were not intended solely for the leisure of the owners, but were – first of all – productive complexes. Surrounded by vast expanses of cultivated fields and vineyards, the villas included warehouses, stables and warehouses for agricultural work. Normally they have lateral wings, the barns, destined to contain the working environments, rationally dividing the space of the central body, destined to the owners, from that of the workers, so as not to overlap the various activities. The central body is divided vertically, where each floor performs different functions.
Thanks also to their descriptions and detailed drawings published by Palladio in his treaty The Four Books of Architecture (1570), the Palladian villas became for centuries the object of study for European and other architects, who were inspired by them for their achievements.
