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ROMEO AND JULIET BEFORE SHAKESPEARE · HISTORIC VILLA NEAR VICENZA
Half a palace, a 14 metre hall and Romeo and Juliet before Shakespeare
A seventeenth century villa built on the Da Porto family estate where, generations earlier, a wounded Vicentine soldier wrote the novella that gave Romeo and Giulietta their names.
The architecture alone would justify the visit: a central hall more than 14 metres across, rising through two floors, and only one surviving wing of a palace conceived on an enormous symmetrical scale. The deeper story began much earlier, when Luigi da Porto returned here after being wounded in battle and wrote the novella that entered European literature long before Shakespeare.
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Threecharlie · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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About
THE PREDECESSOR TO THE VILLA ↓
AN UNFINISHED MASTERPIECE ↓
THE GENESIS OF ROMEO AND JULIET ↓
PLAN YOUR VISIT ↓
While the monumental villa standing today is a product of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Da Porto family’s roots on this site run far deeper.Luigi da Porto, the Vicentine soldier, humanist, and author born in 1485, returned to Montorso after sustaining severe wounds in the War of the League of Cambrai. He resided here from 1511 until his death in 1529. Although the original family residence where he lived and wrote has largely vanished, it laid the historical foundations for the current villa, which was erected centuries later to anchor the family’s enduring legacy.An Unfinished MasterpieceConstruction on the current villa began in 1662 and concluded in 1724, showcasing an unusually ambitious architectural scale. The grand central hall is nearly cubic, spanning over 14 meters across and soaring through two full stories.The surviving eastern wing was originally intended to be balanced by a symmetrical western counterpart, completing a vast, harmonious composition. However, that second half was either destroyed or never fully realized. Adding to the building's complex architectural history, a surviving project draft from 1712 bears the signature of a French architect named Cherrette, documented as an architect and geographer to the King of France.The Genesis of Romeo and JulietThe estate's literary significance predates the current architecture. It was here in Montorso that Luigi da Porto penned Historia novellamente ritrovata di due nobili amanti, the novella that first introduced the names of Romeo and Giulietta to the world. This very text became the foundational source for the literary lineage that ultimately inspired William Shakespeare.Local tradition maintains that Da Porto drew inspiration from his view of the twin castles of Montecchio Maggiore, known today as the Castles of Romeo and Juliet. Ultimately, Montorso served as the peaceful country retreat where a wounded soldier transformed into the visionary behind one of Western literature’s most enduring romantic tragedies.
PLAN YOUR VISIT
The villa is now owned by the municipality and opens through guided visits, cultural events, exhibitions and special programmes rather than conventional daily museum hours.
Recent programmes have included literary events, wine tastings, guided visits and evening access to parts of the building normally closed to visitors.
Check the current calendar before travelling.
Pro Loco Montorso Vicentino
+39 368 7186307
prolocomontorsovi@gmail.com