Basilica Palladiana, Renaissance palace museum in Piazza dei Signori, Vicenza, Italy

The Basilica Palladiana faces Piazza dei Signori with a two-storey marble loggia of white columns and arches, the upper level tall round arches between paired columns, the lower repeating the rhythm with square columns. A band of decorative stonework separates the storeys, and a shallow curved copper roof runs along the top. Behind the loggia, the Gothic Palazzo della Ragione shows its diamond pattern of red and yellow Verona marble. Inside, a vast hall with a ship's-hull wooden roof occupies the upper floor.

The Palazzo della Ragione, a Gothic hall of the mid-15th century, was wrapped from 1481 to 1494 in a double order of loggias by Tommaso Formenton; its southwest corner collapsed two years later. After decades of debate involving Antonio Rizzo, Jacopo Sansovino, Sebastiano Serlio, Michele Sanmicheli and Giulio Romano, the council approved Andrea Palladio's design in 1549. The loggias were finished in 1614, thirty-four years after Palladio's death.

The name comes from Andrea Palladio, who wrapped the medieval structure in his characteristic arches and gave the city a new face. Today the building serves as an exhibition space and meeting point, where visitors walk between the columns and experience contemporary art inside historic rooms.

The building opens six days a week and remains closed on Mondays, with admission granting access to exhibitions and historic rooms. The piazza in front provides space to sit and is freely accessible outside opening hours, allowing you to view the facade at any time.

The large hall on the first floor has a wooden roof shaped like an inverted ship hull that requires no central supports and keeps the space open. This construction allows flexible use of the room and was originally designed for assemblies and court hearings.