Brenta Canal - Venice's Riviera
Must-See Villas and Gardens between Venice and Padua
The first Brenta Canal shortened the route from Padua to the Adriatic, but in the 1500s another branch was created that went directly from Stra to the Venetian lagoon, connecting Padua and Venice. It quickly became a favorite retreat for wealthy Venetians, who retained the best architects of their day -- Palladio, Scamozzi, Frigimelica and Preti – to design and build magnificent villas. Here they decamped for the summer with their household retinues to escape the steamy canals and narrow streets of Venice.
Villa Pisani (Villa Nazionale)
Their summer escape soon became known as the Brenta Riviera, and the sumptuous villas they built there still line the canal. The most impressive is Villa Pisani, also known as Villa Nazionale. Pisani was designed by Girolamo Frigimelica, for a Venetian Doge, Alvise Pisani. The 114-room mansion was intended to rival any in the Veneto in size and splendor. Tiepolo and his assistants decorated the interior.
The lengthy tour through the villa is worth it for the trompe l’oeil painting in the ballroom. The ceiling mimics open sky, and it’s hard to tell where the painting ends and the real architectural details begin. But confusing the real with the illusion is the whole purpose of the trompe l’oeil style. The villa was so grand that when Napoleon ruled Venice and its lands in the 1800s, he used the villa as his residence.
The World’s Hardest Garden Maze
The Doge commissioned the maze as part of the gardens, and it soon became as famous as the villa itself. Composed of miles of narrow paths enclosed by hedges too tall to see over, it is devilishly designed, with convincing routes that come to dead ends, but only after they have twisted and turned so many times that it is impossible to find the original route.
From inside the dozen layers of passageways between the hedges, all that’s visible is the top of the tower that rises at its center. When visitors become hopelessly lost, someone stationed on the tower will often call out directions to help them through. The tower’s stairs form a double spiral, based on a design by Leonardo DaVinci.
Napoleon was lost in the maze, and its formidable history was enhanced when Hitler and Mussolini held their first meeting at the villa. Neither of them was willing to be publicly lost in it, so neither of them entered it.
Villa Foscari (La Malcontenta)
The other major villa open to the public is Villa Foscari, also known as La Malcontenta. Designed by the master architect of the era, Foscari is the work of Andrea Palladio, and it is his most copied villa. Its proportions are perfect, and it features a temple portico and magnificent double staircase. The large salon at the center is cross-shaped, allowing light to enter from all four sides. The frescoes throughout the interior are by Zelotti. Its is set in a garden, overlooking the canal through a frame of willow trees and beside it are parterre gardens.
Getting to the Brenta Canal
The canal is paralleled by S-11, and a car is the best way to get there, since it allows time to explore the villas and gardens at leisure. All-day cruises on Il Burchiello depart from Padua and Venice on alternate days, stopping at both villas open to the public, and sometimes at a third one. Passengers can return to the starting city by train. Ambitious cyclists can rent bikes in either city to explore the flat route alongside the canal.
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