VICENZA (anc. Vicetia), a town and episcopal see of Venetia, Italy, capital of the province of Vicenza, 42 m. W. of Venice by rail, 131 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 32,20o (town) ; 47,558 (commune) ; 46,82o (town), 65,177 (commune). It lies at the northern base of the Monti Berici, on both sides of the Bacchiglione, at its confluence with the Retrone. It was sur rounded by 13th century walls, now mostly demolished. The town has many fine buildings by Andrea Palladio (q.v.). The best is the basilica, one of the finest works of the Renaissance, of which Palladio himself said that it might stand comparison with any similar work of antiquity, replacing the exterior of the Palazzo della Ragione, a Gothic building (1444-1477), which the colon nades of the basilica entirely enclose. Begun in 1549, it was fin ished in 1614. Close by is the Torre di Piazza (i2th–I5th cent.) 27o ft. high, and here are also the Loggia del Capitanio, by Pal ladio (1570 and the long Lombardesque Monte di Pieta (16th cent.). He also designed many of the fine palaces which give Vicenza its individuality; only two, the Porto Barbaran and Chiericati palaces (the latter containing the picture gallery), have two orders of architecture, the rest having a heavy rustica basis with only one order above it. Many palaces attributed to him are really the work of Scamozzi (the architect of the fine Palazzo del Municipio, 1588) and others of his successors. The famous Teatro Olimpico begun by him, but finished in 1583, is a remarkable at tempt to construct a theatre in the ancient style, and the stage, with the representation of streets ascending at the back, is curious. The Italian Gothic cathedral (mainly 13th cent.), consists of a nave with eight chapels on each side, and a very high Renaissance domed choir. The churches of S. Lorenzo (128o-1344) and S. Corona (126o–I300), both of brick, are better examples of Gothic ; both contain interesting works of art—the latter a very fine "Baptism of Christ," by Giovanni Bellini. The church of SS.
Felice e Fortunato was restored in 975, but has been much altered, and was transformed in 1613. The portal is of 1154, and the Lombardesque square brick tower of '166. Under it lies a mosaic pavement with the names of the donors, belonging to the original church of the Lombard period (?). Of the Palladian villas in the neighbourhood, La Rotonda, 12 m. S.E., is a square building with Ionic colonnades and a central dome which has been more than once copied in England and France. Near by is the Villa Val marana, with fine frescoes by G. B. Tiepolo (1737), and the new Piazzale della Vittoria, behind which is the baroque church of Monte Berico, with good works of art, from which porticoes lead down to the tower. Vicenza also has palaces in the Venetian Gothic style.