The Castello’s ‘West Barchessa’ makes up a significant ‘scenic wing’ of Thiene cathedral and is interesting testimony of minor building within the complex. The remains of the original architectural layout are the perimeter walls in stone and brick and the large portico on the ground floor. The 1975 restoration converted it entirely for residential use; in 2002 necessary maintenance and restoration works were carried out to adapt it to the needs of its current use.

The ‘Porter’s Lodge’ was originally the ‘end’ building of the Barchessa and, as it appears on the maps of 1767 and 1804, completed the east side of the noble courtyard. It was used by the custodian and housed the Castello administration on the first floor with storage of the big Porto-Colleoni Historic Archive. The exterior and the stairwell are the result of late nineteenth-century works that repeated the motif already present in the Castello, where the window lights of the top floor open up in the masonry between the merlons, which support the roof with the elaborate terracotta cornice. The work allowed a big office to be created on the piano nobile and some mini apartments on a second floor mezzanine. Recovery of the decorative apparatus, the doors, the historic windows, the stairwell and careful study of the layout allowed the entire complex to be significantly upgraded.

Three buildings in plastered brick and stone masonry – the ‘Keep-dovecote’, featuring an enormous stone coat of arms, the ‘Laundry’ and the ‘Storeroom’ – one abutting the other but remaining independent, are each the result of several building stages and restorations that in 2004 turned them into residences. The crenellated Keep, with three floors, has a characteristic communicating room with cross vault on the ground floor, giving access to the big Castello courtyard on the south side. Careful study of the spaces and visual cones allowed an operation in which the relationship with the exterior and in particular with the architecture of the monumental complex is perceived in almost every room.

The so-called ‘Fattoria’ (in being the home of the ‘fattore’ [farmer] of the Colleoni household) is another interesting example of minor building within the complex, connecting the Castello itself to the block of buildings to the west (keep, dovecote and storeroom). The project recovered a Gothic chimney with richly decorated chimney piece, ceilings decorated in the late nineteenth century with floral motifs in tempera and finely decorated Venetian terrazzo on the first floor, which emerged during the works. The restoration was completed by the design of some fitted furnishing elements intended to better define some of the spaces. Careful restoration of the interiors was followed by the ordering of the secret garden that faces towards the West keep.

The ‘Equerry’s house’, so called because it was used by the equerry, was converted for residential use in 1975 with an interesting project developed vertically by means of a staircase connecting five different levels. The 2005 operation involved renewal of the plant and more generally the restoration of the building, and a kind of completion of the previous project with the same staircase being also connected to the sixth level, the attic, and closure of the portico with glass doors. A large archive living room in close contact with the home and the external spaces was thus created in this area.

Made of calcareous stone and located in the inner courtyard of the Castello, near the ‘Porter’s Lodge’, it was once used for the water supply. The work was of an exclusively conservative nature.

In 1521 Dragonzino, in his short poem ‘Nobiltà di Vicenza’, described the Castello di Thiene as follows: ‘…vidi la villa e ‘l palazzo eccelente // ch’a mirar stancherebbe gli occhi d’Argo,// Poco di sua bellezza in versi spargo,// ch’una lingua non è suffiziente.// Avanti ha una gran piazza d’un mur cinta// a merli tutto e ogni banda dipinta…// dov’è il palazzo pien di meraviglia…’.
This does not allow us to assert that the whole very rich decorative apparatus of the Castello was completed, but certainly a good part of it was.
In 2010 the work of analysis began to reclaim the fragments of the frescoed parts, which had survived the rain-wash of centuries and the atmospheric pollution of the last 100 years, the plaster more or less dating from the fifteenth to seventeenth century and the finely worked stone elements. Those of the last level attributed to the Lombardo are notable among these. Works were then carried out between 2012 and 2015 focusing on the external and internal parts of the west keep, and the exterior of the east keep.
Particular care was then taken in repairing the gaps in the plaster with lime mortar to ensure the uniformity of the facades, though without losing the possibility of identifying the newly made repairs. The restoration of the fresco fragments is particularly interesting, allowing the shapes of coats of arms, figures and floral decorations to be brought back to light, particularly under the overhangs of the windows and between the merlons at the attic level, along with the remains of a chessboard on the west elevation. On the east elevation it was possible to recover four impressive warriors and two horses, which enriched this facade. Working on the remaining traces, and with a careful study of archive documents, these figures were recovered, standing out on the walls almost as if to protect the historic residence, and once again cementing a subject, that of horses, so dear to the original owners of the house and found in several places and moments in the history of the castle.
Special attention was paid to the impressive ‘Venetian style’ chimneys, which are certainly one of the characteristic elements of this ‘Venetian palazzo’ transplanted onto the mainland. Their particular shape, made famous around the world by Carpaccio’s paintings, is due to the presence of an outer mantle whose function is to protect the embers from the wind and extinguish them before they are dispersed on the roof.
The works to repair the roof were carried out at the same time, with consolidation of the beams by reconstructing some ends of the main framing, adding tie rods and overhauling the connections between the various wooden elements.
The frescoes inside – from a different period – that decorate the ground floor and piano nobile of the west keep were restored and the Venetian terrazzo paving and all the historic doors renovated. The plant was then entirely renewed to also give this part of the castle the necessary residential comforts on the first floor and broaden the types of use of the ground floor, where conferences and various other events are held throughout the year.