Cappella Valmarana

The Valmarana Chapel is a small funerary chamber within the crypt of Santa Corona in Vicenza. Designed by Andrea Palladio around 1576, its square interior uses folded Corinthian pilasters, apsidal niches and carefully placed light to shape a family tomb.

Why it matters

Antonio Valmarana’s will of 1575 expressed the wish for a family burial chapel. His brother Leonardo commissioned the design from Palladio, who drew on the form of the ancient Roman house’s tablinum and on the side chapels he was developing for the Redentore in Venice. The Valmarana Chapel translates these architectural ideas into a compact funerary space within the much older church of Santa Corona.

What to notice

The square chamber is extended by two apsidal niches, each illuminated by a concealed window. At the corners, folded Corinthian pilasters with double-entasis shafts support a moulded cornice and cross vault; round oculi punctuate the pendentives. An altar framed by Corinthian semi-columns and a triangular pediment stands at one end. Its tabernacle was added in the seventeenth century, while the two-colour terracotta floor is an original sixteenth-century feature. The sculptural work is attributed either to Pietro da Nanto or to Francesco Albanese and his son Gianbattista.

Context and history

The Valmarana family had used a burial crypt at Santa Corona since 1482. Palladio designed the chapel around 1576, and Leonardo carried out the family’s plans: a floor inscription from 1597 commemorates the transfer of relatives’ remains to the chapel, rather than the completion of its construction. Leonardo was later buried there as well. The chapel is catalogued as part of Vicenza’s UNESCO-listed Palladian heritage and remains a distinct component within the larger church of Santa Corona.