All the classicism of a Venetian villa, of time split between “otium” and “negotium”, with a boxwood garden and romantic park, Tiepolo School frescoes, a brolo, fish pond, barchesse barns and the unique feature of concealing an immense (and ingenious) solar timepiece.
The villa dates back to the early 16th century in its earliest form. However, it reached its present configuration a century later, when Ermolao Tiepolo, Procurator of San Marco, commissioned Vincenzo Scamozzi to update it in his hallmark style. In the 19th century, the property was inherited by the Valier family, and then by the Counts Passi de Preposulo, who still own it today. The buildings and the parkland cover an ancient embankment: a “castelliere” of pre-Roman origin, which, even after the villa was built, retains its orientation with the winter and summer solstices that cadence the agricultural seasons. During the age of Empire’s great Veneto centuriations, the “castelliere” would later become a Roman “castrum”. The main body of the villa is connected by small loggias to the “barchesse”, which were once used to shelter tools and wagons. At the front, access to the villa is via “selese” paving, leading to an Italian-style garden with an octagonal fountain in the centre, citrus trees in ornamental vases, and mixtilinear flowerbeds bordered by dwarf boxwood hedges punctuated by shaped boxwood bushes. The park is bordered by a fishpond. The villa’s perspective view extends for a good two and a half kilometres along what was once the Ancient Roman Cardo, the road conceptually extended by its imposing tree-lined configuration; to the south, that road continued to the port of Venice; to the north, to the city of Belluno and Cortina d’Ampezzo, embracing the Adriatic and the clearly visible Dolomite skyline, along the Piave valley trade route of antiquity. On either side of the formal garden, 19th-century romantic-style parkland opens up with avenues, mounds, grottoes, two greenhouses, ornamental pots and century-old plants. To the east is a horticultural area and the former “brolo” orchard. The entire complex is surrounded by water: to the rear, Piovensan River runs behind the agricultural outhouses (stables, sheds, barns and cellars), crossed by a bridge that connects the building with the countryside to the north. Today, the villa lies at the centre of a farm estate.
Highlights
A Solar Timepiece
In the villa the seasons are marked by the path of the sun: the north and south corners are aligned with sunrise and sunset at the summer and winter solstices, while the east and west sides cross the sun's rays at the spring and autumn equinoxes. In fact, the villa stands on an ancient Paleovenetian Castelliere: a quadrangular earthwork raised above the ground level by about two and a half meters, whose "vital" characteristic was that it was oriented with the sun. Therefore, the villa can be considered a kind of sundial.
The frescoes
The main floor of the manor house and the "barchesse" were frescoed by Baroque quadraturist Pietro Antonio Cerva known as the Bolognese in 1674-75 on commission from Giandomenico Tiepolo. They depict mythological allegories and architecture painted in trompe-l'oeil. The Lady Chapel contains frescoes by Giambattista Canal, grandson of Canaletto.
The Perspective View
From the garden in front of the villa, turning south toward Venice, there is a particularly important view of the grassy "stradon" of monumental dimensions. Conceptually, the Venetian villa, devoid of defensive walls, open to the world, a place of work, peace, culture, and precious goods, was to be gazed at from afar and thus reached.
Waterworks System
Of particular interest is the complex system of waters that derive from resurgence wells (even today the municipality lacks an aqueduct and relies on fountains) and from the Rio Piovesan, a tributary of the Melma, itself a tributary of the Sile River. The articulation of the system met, and in part still meets, the domestic and agricultural needs of the villa's large community: drinking water, "giasera" (icehouse), fishpond, brolo, cellars, stables and "lisciera" (laundry).
Find out more
LANDSCAPES AND GARDENS
The more than 4,000 Venetian villas, built over four centuries, have shaped a landscape in which aesthetic dimension and land governance achieve an accomplished harmony.
