It was one of the first projects by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, as attested in his monograph I quattro libri dell'architettura.

The work was commissioned by the brothers Girolamo, Pietro and Marcantonio Godi, started in 1537 and concluded in 1542, with later modifications to the rear entry and gardens.

The building also houses a museum of archeology in the basement, with hundreds of fossils of plant and animal life in the region.

The building lacks of ornamentation usually associated with Palladio's mature work, and for the refined, symmetrical proportions of the façade and massing of the structure.

The flight of entrance steps is flanked by balusters and its width corresponds to the middle arch of the arcade of the loggia.