Villa Guidini, Venetian villa in Zero Branco, Italy
Villa Guidini is a Venetian country house situated within expansive grounds, featuring a main residence along with four additional structures and a chapel decorated with stone ornaments. The layout reflects the typical design of a wealthy merchant family's rural property from that era.
The Dente family, Venetian grain merchants who entered the patriciate in 1310, started building this villa in 1699. The construction took place when wealthy Venetian merchant families were expanding their influence by establishing grand country estates on the mainland.
Inside the rooms, stucco decorations created by Giovanni Bittante show fruits, flowers, and birds in elaborate detail. The Sant'Ignazio chapel features a marble altar that reflects the spiritual role this place held for its residents.
The property currently needs significant restoration work on its exterior and interior plaster, structural reinforcement, and electrical system replacement. Visitors should expect incomplete spaces and ongoing work that may limit access to certain areas of the complex.
Hidden in a corner of the garden stands a brick ice house topped with a dome, once used to store ice during warmer seasons. This small building reveals how wealthy rural estates managed food preservation before modern refrigeration became available.
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