Castelfranco Veneto

Giorgione's altarpiece

Founded at the end of the twelfth century by Treviso as a fortified outpost against Padua, Castelfranco Veneto has preserved its square castle almost intact: a ring of brick walls with corner towers and a tall clock tower, surrounded by a moat, enclosing the old town, the "Castello". Outside the walls lies the elegant town with its arcades, squares and villas.

Castelfranco is the birthplace of Giorgione (around 1477 to 1510), one of the most mysterious and influential painters of the Renaissance, master of Titian, who died young of plague in Venice, leaving very few certain works. One of them is here, in the cathedral inside the castle: the Castelfranco Altarpiece, painted around 1503 to 1504 for the condottiero Tuzio Costanzo in memory of his son, with the Madonna enthroned high above St Francis and a warrior saint, against a soft landscape bathed in light, a revolutionary image in which the landscape becomes a protagonist. Next to the cathedral, the Casa di Giorgione, a museum dedicated to the painter, holds a frieze with the liberal and mechanical arts attributed to him.

Tip: the gardens of Villa Revedin Bolasco, outside the walls, with their romantic park, are worth a visit; Castelfranco is famous for its radicchio variegato.

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