500 years ago, Andrea Palladio was born

Padua/Prague - The Italian late Renaissance architect and architectural theorist Andrea Palladio, born on November 30, 1508, in Padua, is often considered the most influential figure in the history of Western architecture. Palladio developed his own style and became an inspiration for the so-called Palladianism, an architectural movement that, with its sobriety, formed a counterpoint to Baroque architecture.
He was born as Andrea di Pietro della Gondola - Andrea Palladio was his artistic name - in the family of a miller. In Vicenza, he apprenticed as a stonecutter, but soon replaced stone work with careful study of ancient monuments and treatises on architecture. In Vicenza and its surroundings, he also realized his most famous buildings - city and suburban palaces and villas, buildings with balanced composition, representative yet comfortable and harmonious with both the city and the landscape. Few buildings other than private ones remain from him - such as the town hall, market, and theater in Vicenza or the remarkable churches San Giorgio Maggiore and Il Redentore in Venice. He also engaged in theoretical architecture, publishing, for example, a guide to the ancient monuments of Rome and his Four Books on Architecture.
He died at the age of 71 on August 19, 1580, in Maseru near Treviso. The five-hundredth anniversary of his birth has been included by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) among the significant anniversaries of this year.