Villa Duodo

[3] Villa Duodo was one of Scamozzi's works of his intermediate period, designed when he was forty years old and fully competent in the use of perspective and proportion.

The principal wing, on two floors, centers a lightly projecting bay that resembles a two-storey triumphal arch flanked by two symmetrical bays, each with open Serlian windows decorated with rusticated stone on the ground floor; above the motif continues, however, here in place of side windows are niches containing statuary.

The grounds contain a formal garden in the Renaissance manner and a massive late 17th century exedra, dedicated to St. Francis Xavier, who stayed at the former castle on the site in 1537.

The chapels are all similar in design, approximately six metres square, the front having an entrance contained in a segmented arch flanked by pilasters which support a pediment.

The white rendered walls with decoration in natural dressed stone match the villa and church at the completion of the route.

In appearance the churches are not unlike the many, and far more modern, small family mausoleums found in thousands of cemeteries in Italy and France, testimony to the influence of Scamozzi in everyday, and often seemingly unremarkable, architecture.