Comune di Noventa Vicentina (VI)

Noventa Vicentina (from "nova entia" - new land) a Centre in the lower Veneto between the Berici and the Euganean Hills, already characterized by the presence of human beings in the prehistoric times, and densely inhabited in Roman times, recalls in its own name the valuable drainage work carried out after the disastrous floods of Longobard days which changed the territory considerably.
Involved closely in the wars between the Communes and the Empire, as was the Vicentino territory, Noventa, which from 1404 had come to form a part of the Most Serene Republic of Venice, after the end of the troubled vicissitudes linked with the League of Cambrai (1508) found the conditions which allowed it to develop economically and socially.
The Vicentino followed the fortunes of Venice to the bitter end, and after the fall of the "most Serene", passed under Austrian rule, and later (1866) became part of the Kingdom of Italy.
To-day the area, while maintaining its true agricultural tradition, can boast of a significant industrial importance in the weaving and metal-mechanic sectors, and interesting perspectives in the tertiary sector.
The Scholastic centre of the area, Noventa is also the site of cultural manifestations of a high level (Noventa boasts a theatre), and initiatives favourings the economic-productive development, and also the social development of the Lower Vicentino.
A touristic-cultural itinerary might well start with the Villa Barbarigo, a splendid example of that "Season of the Veneto Villas" which has characterized the Vicentino, too, from the 16th Century onwards.
From the centre of Noventa, our journey leads us, in an alternation of civic and religious edifices, as far as the surroundings, which are also rich in valuable proofs.

The building develops in height for four storeys; above the cellars is the main floor, destined for public life, the second floor reserved for the private life and on the summit, the garret.
In the wings a Tuscan style colonnade indicates the main floor. The central portion, compact in all its vertical development, has at its centre a loggia, Tuscan style below and Ionic above, crowned with a pediment. The three bodies of the the fabric which thrust out from th rear perspective, date back to the end of the 19th Century. The sides of a reduced depth make one think, by virtue of the assymetrical distribution of the openings that probably the execution was carried out at different times.
The "barchesse", with the robust tuscan style columns, most probably housed the dwellings of the dependents of the property. The vast cycle of frescoes that originally covered 430 square metres, can be seen to follow a precise iconographic program, tending to celebrate the glories and great doings of the Barbarigo family, particulary on the main floor; or else reproduce some of the most famous Greek myths. They were the work of Antonio Vassillacchi known as l'Aliense and Antonio Foler.
The various CHANGES OF OWNERSHIP were from Barbarigo to Loredan, then on to Rezzonico, Pindemonte-Rezzonico, the Mechitaristic Fathers of San Lazzaro in Venice and now to the Comune of Noventa.

Erected between 1640 and 1650 on the same spot as its predecessor in Gothic style, the church, dedicated to theSaints Vito, Modesto and Crescienza, was amplified and modified at the end of the Nineteenth Century,. The interior is in a single nave, with six lateral altars, and three grndiose apses which frame the presbitery. The main altar is in Carrara marble and is attribuited to Antonio Bonazza, 18th Century, and bears in the centre a low relief of The Supper at Emmaus. On the left wall above the altar of San Rocco is a painting byGiambattista Tiepolo, oil on canvas, 321X165 cm. Representing the Saints Rocco and Sebastian. The canvas was commissioned by the cardinal Carlo Rezzonico, Pope in 1753 under the name of Clemente XIII.
The marble facade, re-built at the time of enlargement, presents a portal ending in a frescoed round lunette.
Adjoining the Church, at the back, is a negothic sacellum, ending, in pinnacles, built during the second half of the Nineteenth Century as an exorcism against the dangerous cholera.
In the square to the east of the Church is a column with a Corinthian capital, erected in 1878, the first monument in Italy to King Vittorio Emanuele II.

Built between the end of the 16th Century and the beginning of the 17th, it was considerably altered, 1890, in the font facade and in the spaces of the main floor by Carregaro – Negrin who was also responsible for the garret, the pictorial decoration and the moulding which links the entrance door to the two side windows. The building, of a horizontal trend, is of two floors. The rear facade is preserved in its original form. In the interior, the entrance hall with the ceiling beams decorated, extends for the entire width of the house. At the sides the spaces were nearly all sub-divided in the Nineteenth Century. The cellars have vaulted ceilings. The garden and part of the primitive park have been preserved.
CHANGES OF OWNERSHIP: Manin – Broianigo – Cantarella – Masotto (here was born on 23 Novrmber, 1864 Umberto Masotto, who was awarded the gold medal for military valour and who fell in the Battle of Adua, 1896).

In the central part, dated 1788, are frescoes, decorations, columns, stuccoes, wrought iron; the floors are in "palladian" and marble. All this confers a particular sumptuousness on the building.
In the wings, on a lower level, re-structured without changing the original structure, either inside or out, numerous apartments have been systemized.
CHANGES OF OWNERSHIP: Violani - Stefani - now Bellin.
Facing one, on the other side of the road is a pretty Fifteenth Century house with mullioned windows on the facade, in a good state of preservation.

Originally 16th Century, this was re-built in the 17th Century by the Arnaldis. The asymmetrical facade, bears at the sides of the entrance door four ashlar pilasters, continued, on the main floor by similar ionic pialster strips which support the triangular gable. At the rear, in the garden, in front of the 16th Century wall there is a Gothic well-head. In the interior there is an imposing great staircase, an 18th century intervention. In the side rooms are door-heads in lacquered wood and friezes on the beams; stuccoes on the ceiling of the entrance hall.
The elegant little chapel (1741) adjacent to the Villa has on altar a statue in marble of the Virgin, attributed to Orazio Marinali.
CHANGES OF OWNERSHIP: Poiana – pigafetta – Arnaldi – prosdocimi – Romiati – Hospital organization of Noventa – now U.S.S.L. No. 9 Lower Vicentino.

This complex, outside Noventa, on the road leading towards the Caselle locality, entirely surrounded by a wall, includes, in addition to the main house, an oratory and the annexed out-houses. The mansion, of Renaissance appearance, of a single main floor, bears on its doors and windows frames in Nanto stone. In the interior, a huge central hall, extending for the entire length of the buildings, links the main entrance with that of the courtyard. Rooms open at the sides. The cellars are vaulted. Adjacent to the house are the granaries, the habitations of the dependents and the stables with large arched porticos. In the large courtyard is the “seleze” (threshing floor) in brickwork.
Facing the house, in addition to the threshing-floor there is the oratory dedicated to San Floriano, dating back to the XIII Century.
CHANGES OF OWNERSHIP: Poiana – Erizzo – the Mechitarist Fathers of San Lazzaro in Venice – Violani, and now Stefani.

This edifice, in the Saline localit, three floors in the height, has typically Renaissance characteristic. The facade presents a fine moulding in Nanto stone around the central door, and a denticulated cornice below the roof. The threshing-floor is in "masegna" stone. Separated from the house beyond the road leading to Este, are the porticoes, all in brickwork.
At the back is a little church dedicated to St. John the Evangelist.
CHANGES OF OWNERSHIP: Vidiman - Zenobio - Albrizzi and now Busato.