Villa Pisani
Encyclopedia
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
. However, Villa Pisani usually refers to a large, late baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
at Stra
Stra
Stra is a town and comune in the province of Venice, Veneto, Italy. It is south of SR11. It is the location of the famed Villa Pisani located on the Brenta canal.-Sources:*...
on the mainland of the Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
, northern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. It was begun in the early 18th century for Alvise Pisani
Alvise Pisani
Alvise Pisani was the 114th Doge of Venice, serving from 17 January 1735 until his death. Prior to his election, he was a career diplomat, serving as Venice's ambassador to France, Austria, and Spain; he also served as a councilor to previous Doges. He was succeeded as Doge by Pietro Grimani.-...
, the most prominent member of the Pisani family, who was appointed doge
Doge of Venice
The Doge of Venice , often mistranslated Duke was the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice for over a thousand years. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. Commonly the person selected as Doge was the shrewdest elder in the city...
in 1735. The initial models of the palace by Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
n architect Girolamo Frigimelica still exist, but the design of the main building was ultimately completed by Francesco Maria Preti.
From the outside, the facade of the oversized palace, appears to command the site, facing the Brenta canal
Brenta River
The Brenta is an Italian river that runs from Trentino to the Adriatic Sea just south of the Venetian lagoon in the Veneto region.During Roman era, it was called Medoacus and near Padua it divided in two branches, Medoacus Maior and Medoacus Minor ; the river changed its course in early Middle...
some 30 kilometers from Venice. The villa is part of a serie of villas, which the Venetian noble families and merchants started to build from the XV century onwards. Howeverm unlike the earlier buildings, which were designed as to be a pleasure house and an agricultural enterprise, Villa Pisani was primarily built as a demonstration of the power achieved by the family, since one of them, Alvise Pisani, was elected doge in 1735.
The broad façade is topped with statuary, and presents an exuberantly decorated center entrance with monumental columns shouldered by caryatids. It shelters a large complex with two inner courts and acres of gardens, stables, and a maze
Maze
A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...
. Giovanni Tiepolo decorated the massive frescoed ceiling depicting the Glory of the Pisani family (painted 1760–1762). Additional frescoes and paintings are by his son Gian Domenico Tiepolo, Crostato, Jacopo Guarana, Jacopo Amigoni
Jacopo Amigoni
Jacopo Amigoni , also named Giacomo Amiconi, was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque or Rococo period, who began his career in Venice, but traveled and was prolific throughout Europe, where his sumptuous portraits were much in demand....
, P.A. Novelli, and Gaspare Diziani
Gaspare Diziani
Gaspare Diziani was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque or Roccoco period, active mainly in the Veneto but also in Dresden and Munich.-Biography:...
. The bombastic allusions of the ceiling echo hollow in the now uninhabited shell of a palace. The remainder of its nearly 100 rooms are now eerily empty; on the first floor there are several rooms with furniture of the 18th and 19th century.
Deserted by its eponymous family, the villa has had a share of notable and infamous visitors: Napoleon I
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
who acquired the villa in 1807. It has been a national monument since 1882. Here Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
first conferred with Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
in 1934.