Vicenza: Touristic information

Vicenza
Touristic information about the city, the provinces and localities

Vicenza
Vicenza: Main sights
Vicenza history
Vicenza: Popular dishes
Localities in the province

Vicenza

Vicenza is a city in northern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately 60 km west of Venice and 200 km east of Milan. As of 2007 Vicenza had and estimated population of 119,038. [1]

Vicenza: Main sights

Vicenza is on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites, together with a number of the Palladian Villas.


Palladio's works

Vicenza is home to several famous buildings designed by Palladio (all from the period 1580-1590). These include:

Villa Capra (also known as "La Rotonda"), located just outside the downtown area
the public Basilica Palladiana, centrally located in Vicenza's Piazza dei Signori, of which Palladio himself said that it might stand comparison with any similar work of antiquity the Teatro Olimpico, built by Palladio in 1580-1585 for the Accademia degli Olimpici. The scenes are by Vincenzo Scamozzi.
Palazzo Chiericati, home of Vicenza's museum.
Palazzo Barbaran Da Porto
Palazzo Thiene
Palazzo Da Porto Breganze

Other sights

Churches
The cathedral, dating from early in the 11th century, and restored in the 13th, 16th, and 19th, possesses numerous pictures and sculptures, nearly all of them by Vicentine artists (Cittadello, Celestia, Liberi, Ruschi).
The Church of the Ara Coeli (1244), formerly belonging to the Clarisses, contains statues by Marinali and Cassetti, and paintings by Tiepolo.
The Churches of the Carmine (1372) and St. Catherine (1292), formerly belonging to the Humiliati, possess notable pictures.
S. Corona (1260) was built by the Dominicans after the death of Ezzelino, and is pictures by Montagna (The Magdelene) and Relline (Baptism of Christ).
Santa Croce (1179)
SS. Felice and Fortunato (8th century)
SS. Filippo and Giacomo (12th century)
S. Lorenzo of the Friars Minor (1280), in the Gothic style, contains the tombs of many illustrious Vicentines.
In the cloister of S. Maria of the Servites (1319) took place the miracles of St. Philip Benizi de Damiani.
Secular buildings
The clock tower (1224-1446).
The Communal Library, founded by Count Giovanni M. Bertolo.
Casa Pigafetta.
The Town Museum (Pinacoteca Civica) houses mainly Vicentine paintings in the Palladian Palazzo Chiericati.

Vicenza history

Roman age Vicentia was settled by the Italic Euganei and then by the Palaeo-Veneti in the 2nd-3rd century BC, from whom it was taken by the Gauls. The Romans conquered it to the latter in 157 BC, giving the city the name of Vicetia or Vincentia ("victorious").
The Vicentini received the Roman citizenship in 49 BC. The city had some importance as a hub on the important road from Mediolanum to Aquileia, but was overshadowed by its neighbor Patavium (Padua). Little survives of the Roman city, but three of the bridges across the Bacchiglione and Retrone rivers are of Roman origin, and isolated arches of a Roman aqueduct exist outside Porta Santa Croce.
During the decline of the Western Roman Empire, Heruls, Vandals, Alaric and Huns laid the area to waste, but the city recovered after the Ostrogoth conquest in 489. It was also an important Lombard and then Frank centre. Numerous Benedictine monasteries were built in Vicenza area, which, in particular, dried the lake that once was located north of Vicenza by export.

Middle Ages In 899 Vicenza was destroyed by Magyar raiders.
In 1001 Otto III handed over the government of the city to the bishop, and its communal organization had an opportunity to develop, separating soon from the episcopal authority. It took an active part in the League with Verona and, most of all, in the Lombard League (1164-1167) against Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa compelling Padua and Treviso to join: its podestà, Ezzelino II il Balbo, was captain of the league. When peace was restored, however, the old rivalry with Padua, Bassano, and other cities was renewed, besides which there were the internal factions of the Vivaresi (Ghibellines) and the Maltraversi (Guelphs).
The tyrannical Ezzelino III drove the Guelphs out of Vicenza, and caused his brother, Alberico, to be elected podestà (1230). The independent commune joined the Second Lombard League against Emperor Frederick II, and was sacked by that monarch (1237), after which it was annexed to Ezzelino's dominions. On his death the old oligarchic republic political structure was restored -a consiglio maggiore ("grand council") of four hundred members and a consiglio minore ("small council") of forty members - and it formed a league with Padua, Treviso and Verona. Three years later the Vicentines entrusted the protection of the city to Padua, so as to safeguard republican liberty; but this protectorate (custodia) quickly became dominion, and for that reason Vicenza in 1311 submitted to the Scaligeri lords of Verona, who fortified it against the Visconti of Milan.
Vicenza came under rule of Venice in 1404, and its subsequent history is that of Venice. It was besieged by the Emperor Sigismund, and Maximilian I held possession of it in 1509 and 1516.

Modern age Vicenza was a candidate to host the Council of Trent.
The 16th century was the time of Andrea Palladio, who left many outstanding examples of his art with palaces and villas in the city's territory.
After 1797, under Napoleonic rule, it was made a duché grand-fief (not a grand duchy, but a hereditary (extinguished in 1896), nominal duchy, a rare honor reserved for French officials) within Bonaparte's personal Kingdom of Italy for general Caulaincourt, also imperial Grand-Écuyer.
After 1814, Vicenza passed to the Austrian Empire. In 1848, however, the people rose against Austria, but was recovered after a stubborn resistance. As a part of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, it was annexed to Italy after the 3rd war of Italian independence.
Vicenza's area was a location of fights in both World War I and World War II. After the end of the latter, strong economic development made it one of the richest cities in Italy.
Vicenza is home to the United States Army post Caserma Ederle (Camp Ederle), also known as the U.S. Army Garrison Vicenza. In 1965, Caserma Ederle became the headquarters for the Southern European Task Force, and today is the central U.S. military installation in Southern Europe.
In January 2006 the European Gendarmerie Force was inaugurated in Vicenza.

Ecclesiastical history
Among its patron saints the city venerates St. Lontius, bishop and martyr, and St. Theodore and St. Apollonius, bishops and confessors in the fourth century. The Christian cemetery discovered near the Church of Sts. Felix and Fortunatus, dates from the earlier half of the fourth century, and these two saints were probably martyred under Diocletian.
The first bishop of whom there is any certain record is Horontius (590), a partisan of the Schism of the Three Chapters. Other bishops were: Vitalis (901), high chancellor of King Berengar of Ivrea; Girolamo (1000), deposed by Emperor Henry II for political sedition; Torengo, in whose episcopate a number of bishops rebelled against the episcopal authority. Uberto was deposed by Pope Innocent III as a despoiler of church property, but the canons put off until 1219 the election of his successor, Gilberto, who was forced by the tyranny of Ezzelino to live in exile.
Under Bishop Emiliani (1409) took place the apparition of the Blessed Virgin on Monte Berico which led to the foundation of the famous sanctuary. Pietro Barbo (1451) was afterwards elected Pope Paul II.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Zeno (1468) was distinguished for his sanctity and learning. Matteo Priuli (1563) founded the seminary and made efforts for reform. Alvise M. Ganrielli (1779) restored many churches and the seminary.
The See of Vicenza was suffragan of the patriarchate of Aquileia, then of the archdiocese of Udine, and since 1818 of the archdiocese of Venice.

Vicenza: Popular dishes

Baccalà alla Vicentina
Risi e Bisi
Polenta e Osei

The inhabitants of Vicenza are pejoratively known to other Italians as mangiagatti 'cat eaters'. Purportedly, Vicentinos turned to cats for sustenance during times of famine.

Same informations in this page for Vicenza are based on the site www.wikipedia.org respecting the GNU Free Documentation License.

Vicenza: other to visit

Monte Grappa