Draft:Villa Venier (Sommacampagna)

Villa Venier
Location
Country	Italy
Region	Veneto
Location	Sommacampagna
Address	Via 2 giugno
Coordinates	45°24′41.38″N 10°50′49.17″E45°24′41.38″N, 10°50′49.17″E
General information
Conditions	in use
Completed	18th century
Realisation
Owner	Municipality of Sommacampagna
Patron	House of Venier

Villa Venier is an 18th-century patrician villa owned by the Municipality of Sommacampagna, located a short distance from Verona. Attached to the villa is a vast Italian-style public garden. The building and the park are managed by the municipal administration, which purchased and subsequently restored the structure. The park is used for theatrical and musical performances during the summer, while various types of events take place throughout the year. The interior rooms of the villa host temporary exhibitions, and some spaces serve as headquarters for private companies.^[1][2]

Architecture and History

The presence of the Venetian patrician Venier family in Sommacampagna dates back to 1589, with extensive landholdings. Villa Venier was inhabited by this family until 1860. It is likely that the villa was built upon a pre-existing "edificio domenicale" (a rural manor or farmhouse). Adriano Cristofali or his pupil Luigi Trezza were perhaps the architects who designed the villa in 1784 (sources are discordant regarding the two designers). The Villa Venier complex was originally an agricultural estate, consisting of a main building (the villa itself), a vast front park, a rear courtyard, and another building facing the courtyard. The main building comprises three floors plus a basement. At the rear of the villa is the courtyard, overlooked by the portico for the lemon house and the barchesse (traditional Venetian rural outbuildings). At one time, there was also a stable, coach houses, a carriage house, a tool shed, barns, a woodshed, an ornamental well, a rose garden, and the house of the gastaldo (or castaldo—the agricultural administrator). The residential building features an "L-shaped" floor plan. The front section of the villa, facing the park, presents the typical layout of a Venetian palace, which was also utilized for other country villas of the period. The ground floor is characterized by a large central hall that connects the park with the internal courtyard. In the side walls, three square rooms open up. One of these leads to the small chapel annexed to the villa. The octagonal chapel is dedicated to the Holy Family and was built in 1838 by the architect Francesco Ronzani at the request of Giuseppe Venier. It once featured a white marble altar with canteens, predellas, candlesticks, and a gold-lined tabernacle. Today, only the altar remains. Adjacent to it is a small sacristy. The second section of the villa joins the first perpendicularly; it is located at the rear and is more extensive but narrower. This area once housed a tinazzara (or tinazzera), a historical rural term typical of the Veneto region, indicating a room or building used for storing vats (tini) and for the fermentation of must. Often located within ancient agricultural estates or cellars, it was used to hold large wooden vats. There was also a canova (or caneva in Venetian dialect), a place where wine was sold by the glass or in small quantities.

The staircase is located at the intersection of the two units of the villa. In the basement, there is a large cellar. The main facade is symmetrical and possesses Neoclassical characteristics. All ground floor elevations feature smooth rustication (bugnato liscio). Smooth rustication is an architectural decoration formed by rectangular blocks of masonry laid in staggered rows, worked so that the horizontal and vertical joints are recessed relative to the facade. On the exterior walls of the first floor, there are windows topped by linear pediments, with the exception of the door with a balcony overlooking the park, which is instead topped by a triangular pediment. The interiors are distinguished by paintings on the walls and ceilings. The upper friezes of the ground floor rooms are frescoed with vine branches, clusters of grapes, many flowers, and meanders. Meanders are frames with decorative motifs consisting of connected and repeated elements, mostly of intertwined geometric shapes, such as the Greek key. On the first floor, there is another large central hall with frescoes on the ceiling imitating coffering, while Neoclassical columns are painted on the walls. The adjacent rooms are decorated with blue skies, birds, balustrades with flowers, and light blue curtains. The park consists of centuries-old trees and an Italian-style garden. It features an avenue, a staircase, and a fountain. After various changes of ownership, the complex was purchased in 1997 by the Municipality of Sommacampagna, which restored it.^[3][4][5][6]

References