Venetian Villas

Villa Gera

Villa Gera was commissioned in 1827 by Bartolomeo Gera, a member of the noble family of the same name, and was designed by the architect Giuseppe Jappelli. The construction of this villa was destined to greatly change the look of the hill, becoming one of the most characteristic buildings of Conegliano: in fact, standing on the high part of the hill of Giano, in addition to dominating the whole city and the plain of Conegliano, it stands between between the Castle and the upper part of the historic center, where the Convent of San Francesco stands. In 1837 Giovanni De Min was called to fresco the hall of the villa with historical-mythological segments. In the early twentieth century the villa was a place of German occupation during the Second World War, losing part of its frescoes on the occasion of a fire in 1943.

Villa Canello

Villa Canello was designed, with its neoclassical forms, in the eighteenth century to be the elegant residence of the homonymous family. After having suffered a long decline during the 20th century, in the 2000s the villa benefited from a complete restoration by the architect Angelo Buonocchio who brought it back to its original splendor. The structure of the Villa Canello complex is L-shaped, with the facade facing east, over the area of ​​the city crossed by the Monticano and the hills of Monticella, where the profile of Villa Paccagnella stands out. The main body, arranged on three levels overall, is characterized by a higher central tympanum and by obelisk-shaped pinnacles on the ends of the roof. The noble floor, highlighted by the two stringcourses, is distinguished by the presence of a serliana, whose openings are inserted between ionic semi-columns. The rest of the complex, inserted orthogonally on the north side, presents the characteristics of the rural buildings of the surrounding hills: a smaller section of two floors connected to the main volume and a larger section arranged on three levels, characterized by a regular forometry, composed of mullioned rectangular windows; note the two round arches of the ground floor, with the one on the right that crosses the entire width of the building, acting as a sotoportego.

Villa Giustinian

Villa Giustinian was built in the second half of the seventeenth century as a noble residence by the marquis Agostino Soaver; the Giustinian family, ascribed to the Venetian patriciate and the most noble to whom the house belonged and from whom gave it its name. Today the villa, in good condition, is still a private residence. The villa consists of several sections. The central one, used as a noble house and facing the opposite valley (where the Monticano flows) and towards the Colle di Giano, is made up of two levels, plus a central raised block surmounted by a tympanum, containing a fresco with the Giustinian family crest . The entire attic is covered by a large serrated frame. The other buildings, of different shapes and of smaller dimensions, trace with elegance the stylistic features of the rural architecture of the hills of Conegliano. Villa Giustinian has an independent private chapel dedicated to Sant’Antonio, placed at the side of the central body: the gabled façade of the sacred building is characterized by the presence of a large serrated pediment, resting on the sides of two large pillars; the geometry of this elevation consists of a half-moon window and a portal.

Villa Paccagnella

Villa Paccagnella was commissioned in the second half of the 17th century by the homonymous family of the Venetian patriciate (who still owns it today), to become his summer residence in the Venetian hinterland. The project is attributed to the architect Baldassare Longhena, active mainly in Venice, where he is best known for masterpieces such as Ca ‘Pesaro, Palazzo Zane Collalto or the Madonna della Salute. In 1766 a Lombard painter embellished the rooms of the villa with paintings: however, the work was lost during the events of the First World War, when the villa was damaged. Today, restored and brought back to its original appearance, Villa Paccagnella is a private residence that hosts social events and receptions. From Villa Paccagnella, thanks to its panoramic position, the whole city and the Venetian plain to the south dominate the surroundings that overlook the frontal façade, the hills (especially the surroundings of Ogliano) and the prealpine arch to the north. The noble structure is set in a large park with a neoclassical swimming pool. The building consists of a single tripartite building: a central section more developed in depth and height and two symmetrical lateral sections. A large staircase leads to the portico of the facade, opened by a colonnade, which leads to the entrance portal, in a stone frame and which ends in a broken tympanum. On the noble floor, three large single lancet windows are closed by a balustrade and inserted between ionic semi-columns. Above them is a large serrated pediment with three statues at the ends. The lateral segments have two levels of single-light, the first of sixth and the second rectangular; looking up, above a jagged frame, runs a balustrade. The interiors, of great elegance and sobriety, still contain the original furnishings. From Villa Paccagnella it is thought that there is an underground passage to connect it to Villa Contarini.

Villa Moretti

Villa Moretti is a building dating back to the 19th century, home of the Moretti family. Like the other three Venetian villas of Monticella di Conegliano, Villa Moretti has almost completely lost the original features of its location, being incorporated into an area with a high population density, due to the growing urbanization of the neighborhood in the second half of the 20th century. Still home of the Morettis, today the villa is in a good state of preservation. Villa Moretti consists of a main building more than the minor annexes, reworked or of a presumably later decade. The main building has a rectangular plan, with a higher central block and two lateral wings, all arranged in perfect symmetry. The facade sees the bottom floors of the central part highlighted by the arrangement of the openings and by thin string-course frames. The forometry consists of all rectangular single-lancet windows, arranged on the ground floor, around the simple portal, on the two upper floors, around a larger single-light window with parapet. The third floor is an exception, where there is the element that best confers elegance to the otherwise unadorned façade: it is a three-lancet trefoil arch with an inspiration of Venetian-Byzantine, on the sides of which stand two tall octagonal chimneys ; these two elements are the only ones to appear above the vegetation of the small garden leaning against the villa, dividing it from the traffic of the opposite street. The two wings follow a pattern similar to that of the central block, but differ from it due to the lack of the third floor, here replaced by a mezzanine opened by oval windows. To the left of the main building there is a small one-storey structure with a terrace. On the back another small annex, arranged on two levels and reworked, thus recalling the forms of rural buildings.

Villa Fabris Giavi

The residence was purchased in the early 1900s and completely restored by Francesco Giavi (the acronym FG can still be seen on the entrance gates). It was used as a family residence and placed on the gentle slope of Via Bidasio degli Imberti, the final part of the Collina di Monticella, which is part of the Giavi farm. Currently, it is in a good state of conservation. A good-sized building enclosed in the front by a boundary wall, inside which lies the garden, Villa Fabris Giavi is formed by a single building with a quadrangular plan. The façade resembles the common forms of the main Venetian villas from the 17th and 18th centuries, with the central part raised and terminated by a notched tympanum. The openings, arranged symmetrically, draw the three levels of which the structure is composed: on the ground floor, with an ashlar surface, three rectangular single-lancet windows per side are arranged around the central portal; on the main floor, divided by the inferior by means of a string course, the openings are round-headed, with a three-light window and with a balustrade in the center; the second floor, with small rectangular openings, is varied under the tympanum by a wider single-lancet window with a rounded balustrade. On the top of the two corners of the facade and on the upper edge of the tympanum, small sculptural elements are placed.

Villa Bortolon

Villa Bortolon is a building dating back to the 17th century, remembered as the residence of the local Bortolon family. Over the centuries, with the expansion of the center of Conegliano and with the strong urbanization of the area where the villa is located, adjacent to the large industrial complex Zoppas (now Setteborghi), the original context in which Villa Bortolon was inserted was completely lost. Between the end of the twentieth century and the 2000s, the area comprising the villa and the twentieth-century industrial architecture that had been annexed to, was the object of enhancement, as well as a restoration that removed Villa Bortolon from degradation. Medium-sized building, Villa Bortolon, has a seventeenth-century façade, leaning against the street. The perfect symmetry makes that the two pairs of rectangular single-lancet windows are arranged laterally, on the ground floor, at the portal (reachable through two short stairways) and, on the main floor, at the central single-lancet window, equipped with a balustrade. Above, a mezzanine occupies the attic, to which four small oval windows give breath; centrally there is a raised part, in correspondence of a large dormer: this rise is surmounted by a tympanum, opened by a single-light window with a rounded balustrade and flanked by small volutes.

Villa Soldera

Villa Soldera was built in the 19th century. Originally located in an area with low population and peripheral density, it is today located in a deeply urbanized context. Currently in good condition, the villa is now owned by the Soldera family. Late expression of Villa Venetian, like the nearby Villa Moretti, Villa Soldera is a complex on two levels and developed along the gentle slope of the Monticella hill. The central section, with a quadrangular plan, has an open facade with rectangular single lancet windows, regularly arranged to mark the two levels, highlighted also by a string-course. On the top, at the portal (also rectangular), there is a tympanum with a circular window inscribed; above it stands a sculptural element in the shape of a vase, completed by a floral pattern in wrought iron. To the right of the main section there is a small rustic, slightly lower and also designed on two levels, in accordance to the forms of the rural architecture of Conegliano.

Villa Civran Morpurgo Pini-Puig

Villa Civran Morpurgo Pini-Puig also called Palazzo Morpurgo. Villa Morpurgo was built in the seventeenth century; the Montalbano, the Civran, the Morpurgo and then the Pini-Puig family were its owners. A noble chapel was demolished at the end of the nineteenth century and the preserved altarpiece was moved and is now located in the church of Saints Martino and Rosa. In the 20th century, much of the villa’s park and countryside were occupied by dense housing, which made the Monticella hill and its rural areas one of the most populated neighborhoods in the city. Villa Civran Morpurgo Pini-Puig looks like a two-storey building developed in length, perpendicular to the slope of the hill, enclosed by a wall opened by gates, on whose pillars, sculptures are displayed of children in play and with musical instruments. The façade is symmetrical, with the central part dominated by a large tympanum, on top of which stands a small statue representing a putto. Under the tympanum four ionic, pilasters are connected to a thick architrave, which separates this part of the facade, where the portal and the three single lancet windows of the noble floor are located. The forometry of the inhabited area consists of single square quadrangles, some inscribed in a blind arch. Inside, on the noble floor, there are the salons, some of which contain precious decorations. In front of the villa there is a single surviving annex, inserted in the boundary wall and consisting of a small two-storey building with a rectangular plan; on the external walls, very damaged, still fresh decorations can be seen. On the north side of the park up to the top of the hill, there is the only part of the original countryside not yet built, in the center of which there is a typical rural house, in an equidistant position from Villa Morpurgo and Villa Lippomano.

Convent of Sant’Antonio Abate

The Convent of Sant’Antonio was developed in the 16th century and it was one of the most important and richest of the city. It has an adjoining church, a building with three large naves in Gothic style, containing frescoes of 1514 in the apse and, was the work of Pordenone. In the eighteenth century the convent was suppressed by the Republic of Venice and in the nineteenth century, after a long period of neglect, the complex fell victim to collapses, after which little of the original structure remained. What remained of the convent was converted into a villa and was given the name Villa Rocca by of the new owners and still today it is a private dwelling. Currently the few remains of the convent are visible, in good condition, situated along the short street that connects piazzetta Duca d’Aosta and the heart of Parco Rocca: the surviving building is a small arm from the original structure, of which the relative part of the cloister has been saved with a portico opened by round arches and covered by cross vaults, once embellished with frescoes. The forometry of the first floor consists of single-lancet windows. The two-storey building is noted for the red plaster. Leaving Duca d’Aosta square, just beyond the remains of the cloister (located on the right), on the left we see a private house called Villa La Grassa: the rear of this building is nothing but the apse of the Church of Sant ‘ Antonio Abate, the only element that remained from it. Here a precious part of the original fresco by Pordenone was found, Madonna with Child among the Four Saints (respectively Santa Maddalena, Sant’Ubaldo, Sant’Agostino, Santa Caterina): this fresco was detached so as to be transferred to the Civic Museum of Conegliano, where it can currently be found.