Villa Saraceno
Photographs by David Valinsky
Commissioned by Biagio Saraceno the Villa Saraceno, Agugliaro is one of the earliest and simplest of Andrea Palladio's designs. As built it is much more modest than Palladio’s design published in I Quattro Libri dell'architettura (1570). Only the villa’s house was constructed and the symmetrical ‘barchesse’ or barns flanking either side of the house as shown in plate 56 from in I Quattro Libri dell'architettura were never fully executed. In the mid-17th century the colonnaded ‘barchessa’ on the east side of the house was added which links to the other existing farm buildings on the site.
Typically as with other Palladian villas the house as built combined a living space for the owners with a granary above the piano nobile to keep the grain cool and dry.
Derelict by the mid-twentieth century, the Villa Saraceno was bought by the Landmark Trust and restored in 1990-1994.
Also See more images by David Valinsky and additional images of the Villa Saraceno.
Feature by Jonathan Makepeace.