Rovigo

The Nani Mocenigo villa is one of the Renaissance villas that adorn the Polesine and is considered by Canda, a small center in the province of Rovigo, as the most magnificent among the various residences left by the Venetian lords of the 16th century.
The date of the beginning of construction is uncertain, but accredited documents place it around 1580.
The author is probably Scamozzi, an architect and student of Palladio, but some also believe it to be the work of Longhena.

It overlooks the Tartaro River and presents two facades—one from the 1500s to the north and one from the 1700s to the south; the interior, heavily damaged by a fire in 1946, features various frescoes concentrated in the staircase and in the two front rooms of the main floor.
In Canda, it is said that Villa Nani Mocenigo is linked to the legend of the “Sad Countess” who probably still wanders, as a ghost, through the sumptuous rooms of the residence.
The story dates back to the 1600s when a Countess Nani residing in Venice was left by her beloved.
Desperate, she fell into such sadness that she was thought to have gone mad. Her brother Giovanni ordered her to retreat with her Spanish lady-in-waiting to Canda to find peace and serenity. Months passed, but her grief did not subside. One beautiful day, as if by magic, she became cheerful again and began to organize parties and receive guests. One day the two women left the residence to go to the blacksmith, and someone heard them ordering "rasuri" (razors).
At the receptions, the countess, beautiful and gracious, won the hearts of many men and generously reciprocated, but after a night of love, the unfortunate lover would disappear. It soon began to be said that the countess threw her lovers into the well of razors and that the poor souls ended up in the nearby Canal Bianco filleted like fish. Was it revenge, a pathology, or uncontrollable pain? Who knows, it has never been known, nor will it ever be known. One thing is certain: one fine day, both the countess and her lady-in-waiting disappeared.
Probably a more cunning lover discovered the clumsy game and took revenge according to the saying: “MORS TUA VITA MEA!”

Between 1140 and 1146, Guglielmo III Adelardi dei Marchesella had defensive structures built in Polesine, small but well-structured castles to protect his properties from the ambitions and plots of the Estensi. Of these ancient fortifications, only the castle of Arquà Polesine remains in Polesine, one of the most interesting and well-preserved medieval sites in the area. Only with the definitive passage to the Venetians in 1482 did the complex lose its defensive function and was transformed into a true noble residence, of which the frescoes depicting mythological scenes created between the second half of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th are still visible today. Currently, the castle is owned by and is the seat of the Municipality of Arquà Polesine.

The Palazzo dei Patella is an imposing building constructed during the Renaissance, featuring a mixed Venetian-Ferrara architectural style. The majestic and well-proportioned building has two facades that are quite different from one another. The one facing the Adigetto canal has rather austere features emphasized by the rustication around the windows and the arched doors. The rear facade, more solemn, presents five full arches and a triforium in the center of the first floor, certainly of Venetian origin.

Excellences of the villa: The building has been home to the municipality of Villadose since 1923. On the ground floor, there is the museum of the "Roman Centuration," which houses about 400 artifacts collected from the great Roman centuration identified in the countryside between Adria and Rovigo.

The Archaeological Group of Villadose has set up, on behalf of the Municipality, "the Educational Archaeological Exhibition on the Roman Centuration," which only displays the artifacts collected from the aforementioned centuration and is hosted in the ancient residence of the Patella family, which has been the Town Hall since 1923. The Patella family settled in Rovigo and then in Villadose after Borso d'Este invested them with the fief of Villadose in 1470. The building can be dated between the late 1500s and early 1600s and shows influences from Ferrara. The municipal territory of Villadose is entirely occupied by the ancient agrarian layout, and within the grids of cardines and decumani, as many as 108 archaeological sites from the Roman era have been identified. The rooms on the noble floor are also worth visiting.

Excellences of the context: Villadose is located on the central connecting road exactly halfway between Rovigo and Adria, which are easily reachable. It is also crossed by the Adigetto river, and rural architecture villas are remembered that stretch around it from the district of Canale di Villadose to that of Cambio di Villadose. Not far from the center, we remember Villa Frassino, a villa that is now a venue for conventions and weddings, featuring the oldest Frassino excelsior plant in the Province of Rovigo.

Arriving in Fratta Polesine, a city about 20 km from Rovigo, you have the impression of having been transported to another era. The center is characterized by ancient aristocratic homes which stand out in contrast with the surrounding flat agricultural landscape. Villa Badoer, the only UNESCO site in the province of Rovigo, built by Andrea Palladio in 1556, is the architectural fulcrum on which the center of Fratta Polesine was built. The Villa stands out for its visual dominance over the surrounding landscape, as it is elevated above the ground level, having been built on a stone base in order to safeguard it from possible river flooding and amplify its scenic impact. La Badoera, as it is often called, almost as if it were a personification, born as an agricultural company for the control and management of the land is at the same time the emblem of the union of Francesco Badoer and Lucietta Loredan, exponents of two important Venetian noble families, as well as the friendship between Francesco Badoer and his brother-in-law Giorgio Loredan, a bond celebrated by the frescoes created inside the main floor by Giallo Fiorentino. The Villa is a triumph of sobriety and elegance that every year attracts tourists from all over the world, interested in seeing live the work of the great master, Andrea di Pietro dalla Gondola, known to us all as Palladio.