Found­ed in the 2nd cen­tu­ry B.C. in north­ern Italy, Vicen­za pros­pered under Venet­ian rule from the ear­ly 15th to the end of the 18th cen­tu­ry. The work of Andrea Pal­la­dio (1508–80), based on a detailed study of clas­si­cal Roman archi­tec­ture, gives the city its unique appear­ance. Palladio‘s urban build­ings, as well as his vil­las, scat­tered through­out the Vene­to region, had a deci­sive influ­ence on the devel­op­ment of archi­tec­ture. His work inspired a dis­tinct archi­tec­tur­al style known as Pal­la­di­an, which spread to Eng­land and oth­er Euro­pean coun­tries, and also to North Amer­i­ca.