The only existing example of a Venetian villa surrounded by fortified walls, Castello di Roncade features an old building and a tousled 19th-century wood with cedars of Lebanon, magnolias and crepe myrtle serving as background to crenelated towers, boxwood, statues and small obelisks.
The castle on whose remains the villa was built was donated to the Counts of Collalto by Otto II in the 10th century. Destroyed in the 14th century by Cangrande della Scala, between 1514 and 1532 Girolamo Giustinian undertook its reconstruction with gardens and “broli” (cultivated areas), and in the vicinity, mills, houses for the peasants and agricultural properties. The property then passed to the Ciani Bassetti family and in 1930 restoration work was begun to recover the particularity of a Renaissance residence surrounded by a Medieval fortification. The residence is composed of the main house, with two large “barchesse” buildings either side with arched porticos, and a small oratory to the left of the villa. The garden has retained its 16th century layout: the courtyard at the entrance is divided into two ample symmetrical lawns embellished by cedars of Lebanon trees and magnolias and divided by an avenue dotted with statues on the same axis as the loggia and the gate of the surrounding fortified walls; either side of the raised podium of the facade there are two parterreswith hedges forming geometric patterns. This layout is repeated on the rear level, on the sides of the extremities of the “barchesse” and the oratory. The estate is an important winery relying one hundred and ten hectares of vineyards.
Highlights
The "brolo"
An integral part of a Venetian villa garden, the “brolo” was a vast area intended for the cultivation of vegetables and fruit trees to be consumed at the villa. At Roncade the “brolo” is at the back of the villa, where vines have been planted. Around this “brolo” there was another much vaster one, known as the “brolo grando”.
The crenellated walls
The imposing fortified walls around the castle that in times of peace was transformed into a villa with a loggia opening out to the exterior, were an effective defence against invaders, with their four impressive square towers, plus the two circular ones and the moat fed by the river Musestre.
The “barchesse”
Being the heart of an agricultural estate, a Venetian villa is almost always paired with functional out buildings: the so-called “barchesse”. Those at Roncade are architecturally elegant and located at the sides of the courtyard facing the main building.