Degradation of the Palladian landscape

Abstract

Between 1994 and 1996, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) placed 24 villas designed by Andrea Palladio on the World Heritage List. In this way, the universal value of Palladio’s works has been recognised. The analysis of Palladio’s villas provides evidence that in its thinking, the villa was a building deeply integrated in the surrounding landscape. Whereas in the past, a great deal of attention was devoted to preserving the Palladian villas, the Italian public authorities extended the prohibition on modifying the property to the landscape in only a small number of cases. The aim of the paper is to analyse the transformation of the landscape surrounding the Palladian villas inscribed in the World Heritage list from the beginning of the 19th century until today.