The most impressive of the villas on the Brenta Riviera is Villa Pisani, in Stra.
The complex consists of a villa, stables, belvedere exedra, warehouse, gardener’s house, “casa dei fresco” icebox and vegetable labyrinth with a turret. Located along the enchanting Rivera del Brenta, 900 meters from Hotel Magia del Brenta, 10 minutes from Padua and 20 from Venice, the majestic villa of the Pisan nobles housed doges, kings and emperors in its 114 rooms.
Lavish and scenographic, Villa Pisani, now called La Nazionale, is the villa built in Stra for Pisani di Santo Stefano. Initially the Pisani family had commissioned the Paduan architect Girolamo Frigimelica (1654-1732). Of the initial project only the stables were built, while for the construction of the villa they were entrusted to Francesco Maria Preti da Castelfranco (1701-1774).
The rear part of the villa is as impressive as the facade as it overlooks a very long pool with the splendid stables as a backdrop. The villa was built between 1736 and 1756 to celebrate the election as doge of Alvise Pisani, which took place in 1735.
The building has 114 rooms. In the ballroom, illuminated by large windows, there is Tiepolo’s fresco where he painted Gloria dei Pisani. Jacopo Guarana frescoed the vault of the staircase and the Bacchus room. The painters Crosato G. Zais and F. Canal with their work adorned many other rooms.
With the decline of the Republic of Venice, the villa Pisani changed owners, bought by Napoleon in 1807 and given to his stepson Eugenio Beauharnais. The Emperor Francis I, the Emperor of Mexico and Vittorio Emanuele II stayed in the villa.
