Soprana and 250 years of goldsmiths’ workshops

Goldsmiths captured in an engraving

In 1770 Cristoforo Dall’Acqua photographed in an engraving the goldsmith stores under the Palladian loggias.
In the 1500s Vicenza was also an important municipality for goldsmithing with prominent representatives such as Valerio Belli and the Capobianco family, but as early as 1339 written documents spoke of goldsmiths’ workshops and the “Fraglia degli orefici” present in the Palazzo della Regione (now the Basilica Palladiana). It was not until 1770, thanks to this work by Dell’Acqua, that visual proof of this was finally available.

The counters are in front of the store to capture the light, the display cases well in view to showcase the jewelry, there are goldsmiths sitting at the counter while in the central arch you can see a vendor taking necklaces hanging from a bar.

Today the Soprana family, now in its fourth generation, continues the tradition begun by Marangoni in 1770 and before that by those goldsmith merchants who worked here.

The panels shown here were hung outside our jewellery shop in Vicenza.