Page 6 - Living Italy Past and Present Issue 4

From the 16th to the 18th century, many Ve- netian aristocratic families built their beautiful villas here (the famous Ville Venete, such as Villa Foscari, also known as La Malcontenta in Malcontenta, Villa Barchessa Valmarana
in Mira, Villa Widmann-Foscari in Mira, Villa Ferretti-Angeli in Dolo and Villa Pisani in Stra). Many of the villas are in the Palladian style, and a few were designed by Andrea Palladio himself and by his pupil Vincenzo Scamozzi.
The villas, surrounded by parks, tiny villages and parish churches, contain a number of art treasures by local artists and painters from other parts of Italy, including names such as Sansovino, Zelotti, Demin, Benedetto Cagliari and others
Unfortunately many villas had frescos on the outside, which were later wiped o as they were considered a luxury and thus heavily taxed. Likewise, internal paintings were also eliminated if directly attached to the wall. These were replaced by removable paintings, which could be taken o and sold. In the 19th century, hard times hit these noble fam- ilies, some of whom had to sell not only their treasures, but also their villas, which became too expensive to run.
The beautiful Villa Valmarana had to be part- ly demolished leaving two granaries trans- formed into a farm and inn in order to down- grade the value of the property.
It was later sold, but is among the few villas, which are still in private hands and, like many stately homes, hosts wedding reception and exhibitions to enable the family to keep it. See website: www.villavalmarana.net
The best and most grandiose of these abodes is Villa Pisani in Stra with its magni cent façade and rooms, park, fountains and long pool, statues, orangerie, stables and maze. It was primarily built as a status symbol show- ing o the power achieved by the Pisani family, since one of them, Alvise Pisani, was appointed doge of Venice in 1735.
When it was built the building had 114 rooms The most important room is the “Napoleon Room” and its adjacent bathroom, furnished with pieces from the Napoleonic and Habsburg periods and others from the Pisani period. The villa experienced moments of glory, but then passed from one owner to another
In 1807 it was bought by Napoleon from the Pisani Family, who fell into poverty due to great losses in gambling.
In 1814 the building became the property of the House of Habsburg and the villa trans- formed into a place of vacation for the Euro- pean aristocracy of that period.
In 1934 it was partially restructured to host the rst meeting of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, after the riots in Austria.
Living Italy Past & Present 6