Until the thirteenth century the village was called Roburetum, the oak wood, after the oaks that grew there. Then the Verla family arrived from Saxony: the founder Giovanni was a knight in the retinue of the emperor Henry II, who invested him with these lands, and his descendants held them for centuries. Around their house a new settlement grew, first Villa Verlaria, then Villa Verla, finally Villaverla, that is, the village of the Verla. In 1276 they also dug the irrigation channel that is still called the Verlata, and in 1576 they had their palace built to a design by Vincenzo Scamozzi, a pupil of Palladio.
The bigger villa, however, was wanted by those who hated them. The Ghellini, Guelphs, who arrived in Villaverla in the fourteenth century and fought the Verlato for control of the place, in the seventeenth century called in Antonio Pizzocaro, the leading Vicenza architect of the day, and asked him for something resembling a castle with a parade ground in the middle. The money ran out first: the works stopped in 1679, a date carved twice on the main front, and on 3 August of the following year the architect died. Nobody ever took them up again, and the northern wing of the façade breaks off sharply just past the first row of windows.
No events match these filters.
📅 Every year, on 30 November, in the hamlet
In the hamlet of Villaverla, Saint Andrew the Apostle is celebrated on 30 November; in the main town, Saint Dominic is instead celebrated on 8 August.
📅 Every year, on 8 August, in the main town
Villaverla celebrates Saint Dominic on 8 August, in the main town; in the hamlet, Saint Andrew the Apostle is instead celebrated on 30 November.
Stockfish, milk, oil and anchovies, cooked for hours over the lowest heat: baccalà alla vicentina arrived from Norway with a shipwreck in 1432.
Read more →Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Villaverla, but an easy day trip away.
