Built just where once there was the passage of two important rivers for the city, the Bacchiglione river and the Retrone, which had their confluence in this area, it was also called the Isola Square.
The Chiericati Palace is characterized by a Doric portico, developed along the entire width of the facade, raised above the level of the square thanks to a high plinth and a central staircase, which supports the Ionic upper floor. The latter is closed in the central sector and open on the sides in two spacious and bright loggias.
A particularly unique solution, a structure with two superimposed hinges, and with a crowning of statues so it had never been seen, much less used for a private residence. A spectacular palace, which in 1994 became part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with other Palladian architecture in the city.
What characterizes this building is the absolute prevalence of empty spaces over solids, a characteristic capable of providing it with exceptional airiness and brightness and, at the same time, a powerful and monumental aspect. What distinguishes it from other Renaissance urban residences lies in the Palladian ability to insert it in a large open space on the edge of the city, overlooking where a river once flowed, in a context that makes it both a palace and a villa.
The Palladian Basilica and Chiericati Palace represent the definitive passage of the artist, to his full maturity of language, where the stimuli from the ancient world were absorbed and reworked in a specifically Palladian line.
Today Chiericati palace houses the museum and the civic art gallery, with a large collection of works, paintings, sculptures and applied arts, which range from the thirteenth century until the early 2000s. Some aristocratic bequests have left nineteenth-century masterpieces at the art gallery, including works by Tintoretto, Giambattista Tiepolo, Canaletto, Paolo Veronese, Hans Memling, Pablo Picasso, Jacopo Bassano, Cima da Conegliano and many others...
