Andrea Pietro della Gondola, known as Palladio, was born in Padua on 30 November 1508. Since his youth, young Palladio has been introduced to the construction work, first in the B. Cavazza da Sossano workshop and then, at sixteen, in the stonemason's workshop and builders of Giacomo da Porlezza in Vicenza, where he was used as a stonemason in the construction of monuments and statues.
The key moment of his career took place during the construction of the villa of Cricoli, owned by the humanist poet Gian Giorgio Trissino, who became his protector following him in his studies and perhaps also attributing the nickname of Palladio, from Pallas Athena, Greek goddess protector of wisdom . Always with Trissino, Palladio travels to Rome to study firsthand the ancient Roman ruins and the ancient monuments that, together with the study of the works of the Latin architect Vitruvius, will be of fundamental influence in his production. From these observations will also be born a work on architecture in four books that will have a great success.
Among Palladio's works there are numerous palaces and churches but above all the villas, where the "Palladian style" emerges in all its splendor, making it one of the most influential architects of all Western architecture.
Among the most important works we can mention the Palazzo della Ragione in Vicenza, its first major work, Palazzo Valmarana, Palazzo Chiericati and Villa Almerico-Capra called La Rotonda, a true paradigm of Palladian production, made of harmony and proportions. Most of the churches are located in Venice, while the palaces and villas are concentrated in the territories of Vicenza, now protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
His last work was the magnificent Teatro Olimpico of Vicenza, begun in 1580, the year in which according to tradition, Palladio died in Maser, in the province of Treviso.