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| Map of the villa and surroundings |
Pontelongo, 5 m/16 feet above sea level; the villa is located on Via Roma; train station at Pontelongo on the Venezia-Adria line.
This villa was constructed on the left bank of the river Bacchiglione around 1570 on behalf of Nicolò Foscarini of San Stae as the center of an agricultural estate. The name of the architect is unknown.
During the 18th century the villa also housed a factory for the working of coral to accommodate the procurator Marco Foscarini, a historian who was passionate about coral; Marco Foscarini was elected doge in 1762, but he became ill shortly afterwards and was hospitalized at the villa with the hope that the country air would be beneficial, but he died all the same, not achieving even one year as doge, on March 31, 1763, in his own villa. Gaspare Gozzi, a writer and the personal secretary to Marco Foscarini, also worked at the villa.
During the 19th century the villa passed to the Erizzo family, who completely rebuilt it in a neoclassical style. After the flood of 1882 embankments were constructed that partially cut off the view of the villa, which today is visible from the bridge over the Bacchiglione, but half sunken behind the embankment.
The facade of the villa recalls many other Venetian villas: six Ionic columns crowned by a triangular pediment, at the middle of which there is a window in the form of a quatrefoil. Adjacent to the villa there were two farm support buildings (barchesse) and large gardens with statues of which the only ones that remain today are along the piazzale outside the villa.
The villa today is the town hall of Pontelongo; the barchessa on the right houses other municipal offices and the post office, while the barchessa on the left houses a school.
Latest visit: 2014-05-04
