We report the discovery of two counterrotating stellar disks in the ea
rly-type spiral galaxy NGC 3593. The major axis kinematics shows the p
resence of two dynamically cold counterrotating components. The surfac
e brightness profile is well reproduced by the sum of the contribution
s of two exponential disks of different scale lengths (r(1) = 40 ''; r
(2) = 10 '') and different central surface brightnesses (mu(r,1) = 19.
9; mu(r,2) = 18.5 mag arcsec(-2)). The nu and sigma radial profiles ar
e easily reproduced by the means of a kinematical model adopting the a
bove photometric parameters. An ionized gas disk is present. It corota
tes with the smaller scale length and less massive (M(2) = 2.7 X 10(9)
M(.)) disk, and counterrotates with the larger and more massive (M(1)
= 1.2 x 10(10) M(.)) one. We conclude that the smaller stellar disk i
s the result of a slow adiabatic acquisition of a conspicuous amount o
f counterrotating gas (M(infall) similar to 4.3 x 10(9) M(.)) by the p
reexisting galaxy, originally constituted mainly by a aas-free stellar
disk (disk 1). The counterrotating gas settled into the equatorial pl
ane and then formed the inner stellar disk (disk 2).