Wing of the Villa Thiene (Cicogna)

The Wing of the Villa Thiene is a construction designed by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, located in Cicogna, a hamlet in the comune of Villafranca Padovana in the Veneto region of Italy.

The barchessa (wing) which exists today was only part of an ambitious project drawn up by Andrea Palladio for Francesco Thiene and his sons Odoardo and Teodoro.

The project for Villa Thiene is documented by an engraving in the Quattro libri; decidedly ambitious, it was characterised by a great loggia with a giant order, enclosed between towers arranged at the building’s four angles.

A drawing by Marcantonio Palladio of the realised barchessa exists, which is extremely close to the executed form.

Both barchesse of the project should have been connected to the lordly house by two curvilinear porticos, identical to those designed by Palladio in 1554 for the Villa Badoer at Fratta Polesine.