Palladio Architecture and Enterprise in Renaissance Vicenza

Sixteenth-century Vicenza and its province was one of most dynamic areas of Europe for the production an marketing of wool and silk. In this city at the forefront of the Venetian republic's rapid industrial growth, the young Palladio found fertile ground for the invention of new architecture, inspired by the lessons of ancient Rome and capable of improving the quality of people' lives as well as changing the image of the city. Not only ecclesiastical or military leaders or large landowners, the Vicentine nobles were also bold entrepreneurs at the head of internationalised businesses with branches throughout Europe. It was the cosmopolitan Vicenza that responded to and realised Palladio's ideas based on his desire to radically change exstiting architecture and to introduce innovations in materials and typologies.