Villa Piovene dates back to 1539 and is located on the hill of Lonedo di Lugo, from which dominates the entire plain below. It was included in 1996 in the UNESCO World Heritage List, along with other Venetian Palladian villas.
Villa Piovene History
On the slopes of the hill of Lonedo, a few hundred meters from Villa Godi Malinverni, another Palladian opera, stands the complex of Villa Piovene. Built starting from 1539, it is in fact a project competing to the nearby villa and the competition and antagonism between the Piovene and Godi families seems to have had an incentive on the ambition of Battista Piovene in this sense.
The attribution to Andrea Palladio of the involvement in the realization of this sumptuous residence is rather uncertain, or at least his intervention is not on the whole building complex. In fact, the current side barchesse dates back to the mid-eighteenth century and the double stairway leading to the loggia is by Francesco Muttoni. The central body, on the other hand, is almost certainly to be attributed to Palladio as it shows the lines and characters typical of the great architect.
Many sculptures enrich the nineteenth-century garden and are attributed to the workshop of Orazio Marinali, while a large park, of national interest, develops along the foothills. Attached to the villa there is also the small late Gothic church dedicated to San Gerolamo, which bears the date 1496.