The gold work of Vicenza

At the heart of the local jewellery industry’s success lies more than a hundred years of tradition. 

It is enough to know that the first written evidence of the importance of this sector in the province dates back to the early 14th century, with the signing of the statute of “the Vicenza Guild of Goldsmiths”, a corporation of more than 150 craftsmen who practised their profession in a population of twenty thousand inhabitants.

The productive capacity and creativity of the goldsmiths were and are still the industry’s strengths, with many of the biggest names on the international scene based in the Vicenza area, as heirs to Valerio Bellithe, the great Renaissance goldsmith and close friend of Michelangelo and Raffaello, whose mastery is mentioned in Vasari’s “Lives”.

Italy is the world’s largest gold jewellery exporter and Vicenza is the most important national production district.

The presence of an important district of companies involved in the construction of gold jewellery machinery has allowed the sector to remain always at the cutting edge technologically. 

It has also facilitated the development of numerous industrial realities, capable of uniting the main characteristics of Vicenza’s gold jewellery production, its design and quality, with a powerful production capacity.

With 739 companies and almost 9,000 employees, the gold jewellery sector is one of the driving forces of the local economy. The district extends throughout the province, although Trissino and Bassano del Grappa are its two most important production centres.

Vicenza is in the heart of the Veneto region, in one of its most industrialised areas, with the greatest concentration of manufacturing companies. 

 Vicenza is known worldwide as the city of Palladio, the great 16th-century architect who left an indelible artistic impression on each of his works, most of which are located in the Veneto region, particularly in the Vicenza area.