There is no better setting than her Villa Ducale to meet Elisabetta Fogarin, president of the Venetian Villas Consortium. From her proud gaze transpires all the passion for her work, for this land, for art.
The Riviera del Brenta, Elisabetta tells us, is the only example of a complex system of villas that overlook a single waterway and together represent a unique and unrepeatable scenic beauty. The credit for this is undoubtedly due to the Venetian nobles and patricians who built these splendid residences between the 15th and 18th centuries, designed by the greatest architects of the time, such as Palladio, Scamozzi and Frigimelica. The villas were dynamic places, they hosted sumptuous parties and receptions, strolled through romantic gardens, enjoyed outdoor games and even concealed spicy adventures; but these airy and elegant settings were also places of power and representation and often hosted important diplomatic meetings and business visits.
The villas represent a world, each corner has its own story to tell, each villa is a treasure chest of curiosities, of lives lived, of Venetian history.
Today, as then, the varied and complex architecture offers residents and tourists on the Riviera a glimpse that is always new, that gives an emotion, that is poetry, magic.
Many of the current owners,’ Elisabetta continues, ’have rediscovered the mission of the Venetian Villas and restored them to their ancient tradition as places of economic development for an entire territory, opening them to the public for guided tours and cultural events, for weddings, private parties and corporate events, or transforming them into elegant restaurants and hotels.
Villa Pisani
The grandest villa on the Riviera, the Villa Pisani Nazionale in Stra, was erected in the 18th century on commission of the rich and prestigious Venetian Pisani family, who owned several properties in the area. The majestic complex, directly overlooking the waters of the Brenta, was commissioned in 1721 by Doge Almorò Pisani to testify to his family’s wealth and power. This is confirmed by perhaps the most significant fresco of the entire cycle, the self-celebrating ‘Glory of the Pisani Family’, painted by Giambattista Tiepolo on the ceiling of the majestic Ballroom. Inside the thirty rooms of the piano nobile, one can admire splendid frescoes depicting mythological scenes and allegories of arts and virtues, as well as many original paintings, stuccoes, statues and furnishings from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Enchanting are the eleven hectares of parkland that recall both the French model of Versailles and the Venetian tradition of the walled garden; these include the famous maze with box hedges and the central turret – a metaphor for the conquest of wisdom – the long early 20th-century water basin, the large hexagonal exedra with its perspective galleries and the imposing theatrical backdrop of the frescoed stables. Throughout its history, Villa Pisani has hosted many doges, kings and emperors in its precious flats.
It was owned by Napoleon, the Emperor of Austria and finally by the Savoys, who donated it to the State at the end of the 19th century. Today the villa, which has become a national museum, is one of the most visited places in the region and a splendid visiting card for the entire Riviera del Brenta.
Villa Foscarini Rossi
The elegant classical architecture of Villa Foscarini Rossi di Stra offers, together with the nearby Villa Pisani, one of the most beautiful postcards of the Riviera del Brenta. Designed at the end of the 16th century by Vincenzo Scamozzi, one of the most important architects of the time, the complex, which celebrates the prestige of Giacomo Foscarini as captain general da mar and winner of the Battle of Lepanto, consists of the main house, barchessa and guest quarters. The latter, of imposing dimensions, has changed its vocation over time: richly frescoed in 1652 by Domenico de’ Bruni and Pietro Liberi with architecture, perspectives, mythological and allegorical scenes, the building was transformed from a simple shelter for carriages into a splendid and enormous ballroom, which is still used today for events, conferences and parties.
Since 1994, Villa Foscarini has housed the Museum of Designer Shoes.
Villa Ducale
Villa Ducale di Dolo, built along the Brenta River in 1884 by the Venetian Count Giulio Rocca, stands on the remains of an older 18th-century building, to which the small church and the Italian-style garden with its statues and hedges still belong. The villa has recently been completely restored and furnished. The interior decoration is elegant: each room is embellished with stucco work, wooden floors, faux textile wallpaper and ceilings painted with twentieth-century tempera; there are also hints of Venetian opulence with Murano glass chandeliers and mirrors. After the passage of several owners, Villa Ducale has now become an elegant and comfortable hotel and restaurant.
Villa Allegri Von Ghega
During the 18th century, Venice was a theatre of great contradictions and the strict prohibitions imposed by the government clashed with the frivolity and pomp sought by the nobility. Along the Riviera, however, where the city’s controls were less tight, there arose Villa Allegri, a gambling and hunting lodge much frequented by its owners, who spent mundane evenings here in the company of various Venetian friends, including Giacomo Casanova. Villa Allegri in Oriago di Mira was built as a gaming and hunting lodge by the Allegri counts during the 18th century on a structure with 16th-century foundations. At the beginning of the 18th century (1706), the villa was later modified into its current structure and used as a gaming and hunting lodge. In 1848, it was the home of Austrian Marshal Radetzky, who commanded the siege from here during the city’s uprising against the Austrians. From 1815, Marshal Marmont, Duke of Ragusa and general of Napoleon Bonaparte was a frequent guest of the family. Today, the villa is partly used as a B&B.
Villa Valier known as “La Chitarra” (“The guitar”)
At a bend in the Brenta River, just outside Mira, stands Villa Valier, a complex set in a centuries-old park, the original core of which dates back to the 16th century and was owned by the noble Valier family, whose members included two doges. The current façade, however, reflects the early 19th-century modifications desired by the successive owners and is quite different from the previous one, which was very majestic and embellished with valuable frescoed figures, such as the guitar player who gave the villa its nickname. The complex also includes a 16th-century oratory and a large 18th-century barchessa, which, under its airy portico, once housed a wine cellar, granary and other outbuildings linked to farming activities and now host
Villa Foscari known as “La Malcontenta”
The villa that Palladio built for the brothers Nicolò and Alvise Foscari around 1559 stood as an isolated block with no agricultural annexes on the edge of the Lagoon, along the river Brenta. Rather than as a villa-farm, it was configured as a suburban residence, quickly reached by boat from the centre of Venice. The patrons’ family was one of the most powerful in the city, so the residence has a majestic character, with a regal pronaos, the majestic colonnade on which the tympanum rests, giving it magnificence and an appearance similar to ancient temples. Inside, the space is symmetrical in all its parts and houses the autonomous flats of the two patrons, enriched in each room by the splendid frescoes with mythological themes by Battista Franco and Giambattista Zelotti. Since 1996, the villa has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Villa Valmarana
What remains of the 17th-century Villa Valmarana di Mira, demolished in the early 20th century, are the imposing barchesse, under whose arches boats were once stored. In the last decades of the Serenissima, the porticoed structure on the right changed its vocation to serve as a support for the villa during the grand festivities that the Valmarana family used to give. Guest flats were thus created here and, to show off the family’s wealth and prestige, the rooms inside were completely frescoed with enchanting fantasy landscapes and furnished with statues, furniture and period objects. At the back of the barchessa is a beautiful park with a well-kept Italian garden, framed by hedges and century-old trees and painted in the colours of more than a thousand rose plants. Today Villa Valmarana is an ideal setting for events.
Villa Widmann Rezzonico Foscari
The villa complex, with its imposing barchessa and small church, was built at the beginning of the 18th century. Immediately afterwards, the villa passed to the Widmanns, who saw to the modernisation of the manor house in the French rococo style and the extension of the barchessa. Among the many illustrious guests were the famous Carlo Goldoni, Cardinal Sarto who became Pope Pius X, the musicians Malipiero and Igor Stravinski, while Gabriele d’Annunzio, a friend of Count Pietro Foscari, was at home. To the north of the villa stretches the park full of plants, avenues of lime trees, bushes and flowers. Against the green of the pines, numerous statues in soft stone stand out. They are gods, water lilies, cupids with arrows: mute presences evoking the fairytale world of classicism. A short flight of steps leads to the open atrium supported by four elegant columns that introduce into the ballroom, surmounted by a light gallery, frescoed with great decorative richness around 1765 by Giuseppe Angeli; of particular note are the frescoed walls depicting ‘The Rape of Helen’ and ‘The Sacrifice of Iphigenia’.
Villa Badoer Fattoretto
Villa Badoer Fattoretto is a Venetian villa in Dolo, composed of a 16th-century central body and two lateral barchesse (barns) dating back to the second half of the 18th century and remodelled in the 19th century. The complex is set in a centuries-old park of over 20,000 square metres furnished with statues and period marble. It was for a long time the summer residence of the Badoer family, but in 1846 the last Badoer heirs sold it and in the following decades it changed hands again and again. In 1903 it was purchased by Baron Carlo de Chantal, who is said to have bought the villa in order to be able to attend his mistress who lived in the house opposite; a beautiful pond with a small island in the park remains from this period. An interesting ethnographic museum ‘il Museo de Villano’ has been set up inside the barchesse, exhibiting more than 22,000 objects, in which historical documents, musical instruments, the first rudimentary agricultural machinery and tools related to “villano” (peasant) life are collected.
