Villa Valmarana, Renaissance manor house in Lisiera, Italy.

Villa Valmarana is a Renaissance manor house in Bolzano Vicentino, in the province of Vicenza. It has a two-story facade with an Ionic columned hall on the ground floor and a broad gable above the main entrance.

Work began in 1563 to designs by Andrea Palladio, the most prominent architect of the Venetian Renaissance. After the patron died, the building was altered and moved away from Palladio's original plans.

The villa sits among other country houses from the same era, making it easy to compare styles and details. Walking past the facade, a visitor can read the conventions of Venetian noble architecture directly in the stone.

The manor stands on Via della Ferrovia and is easy to see from the street at any time of year. The exterior can be viewed freely without any restrictions, so a short stop on foot is all it takes.

Palladio's 1570 engraving shows two tiers of loggias flanked by corner towers on both fronts, but the second tier was never built and the central bay was closed with an attic-like top. The client Gianfrancesco Valmarana died in 1566, and his nephew Leonardo finished the house more cheaply.