Seen from above, Palmanova is a perfect nine-pointed star: Venice founded it in 1593 as an ideal war machine, a radial fortress-city where every street converges on the hexagon of Piazza Grande. Since 2017 it has been UNESCO-listed among the Venetian defence works.
You visit it on foot: three rings of bastions, monumental gates, countermine tunnels explored with guides. In the evening, the parade ground becomes a drawing room of cafés beneath the Doge's cathedral. A military utopia never taken by force — conquered today only by Sunday cyclists.
Near Palmanova
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
