Villa Caldogno is attributed to Andrea Palladio. It was built for the aristocratic Caldogno family on their estate in the village of Caldogno near Vicenza.
A Latin inscription on the facade dates the completion of the building to 1570 when it belonged to Angelo Caldogno. However, Angelo's father, Losco Caldogno, appears to have started to build in the 1540s, probably incorporating walls from a pre-existing building. 1570 is possibly the date of the completion of the villa's decorative scheme.
The villa is not included in I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura, Palladio's treatise of 1570, in which the architect discussed a number of his creations. However, it is similar to certain villas, such as the Villa Saraceno, that Palladio is known to have created in the 1540s and 1550s.
The villa has frescoes by Giovanni Antonio Fasolo (1530-1572), who decorated Palladio's Teatro Olimpico, and Giovanni Battista Zelotti (1526-1578), who decorated a number of villas designed by Palladio. The frescoes at Villa Caldogno Nordera have been compared to Zelotti's work at Villa Foscari.
In 1996 UNESCO included the Villa Caldogno Nordera in the World Heritage Site 'City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto'. The villa is in municipal ownership and is open to the public.
References:The Château du Lude is one of the many great châteaux of the Loire Valley in France. Le Lude is the most northerly château of the Loire Valley and one of the last important historic castles in France, still inhabited by the same family for the last 260 years. The château is testimony to four centuries of French architecture, as a stronghold transformed into an elegant house during the Renaissance and the 18th century. The monument is located in the valley of Le Loir. Its gardens have evolved throughout the centuries.