VILLA DOLFIN –FROM MARTELLO CALLED “LA MINCANA”
In the Municipality of Due Carrare, at the foot of the Euganean Hills, in the green of the countryside there is a white Villa Veneta called “La Mincana”. The presence of the Villa, property of the noble Venetian family Bragadin, is attested already in 1580 according to a document that tells how Marietta Bragadin possessed “home with courtyard, garden and vegetable garden and other comforts for the convenience of staying when you go to the villa”.
In 1617 it was already owned by another noble Venetian family, the Dolfin, which makes it a manor house. The name ‘Mincana’ is also ancient and referred to the place. There was the villa, placed along the public road that at the time passed in frieze to the façade, and the service buildings placed towards east. At the beginning of the 18th century the villa still had to have identical aspect and features and was the will of Daniel Dolfin, Patriarch of Aquileia, re work and give a new look to the complex, building an oratory dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, an inscription above its amin door attributes to the year 1721. The modernization work of Daniele Dolfin continued until the middle of the century endowing the villa in 1725 with a French garden with fish pond, labyrinth, botanical garden and cedar and embellishing all the complex with statues of Orazio Marinali.
Between 1777 and 1788 Mincana was a destination for continuous visits and the garden was at the height of its splendor, until Daniele Dolfin, appointed ambassador of the Serenissima Repubblica in Paris and later in Vienna, progressively lost interest in the villa, leaving it to his wife Giustina Gradenigo. He barely did anything to repair the damage to the complex and the garden devastated by a hurricane in 1789. In the years to come the villa lost its old splendor passing to the first of ‘800 from the Dolfin to the family of Padua Meneghini who owned it throughout the century. In subsequent passages property were sold decorations, furniture, statues and the altars of the oratory, the garden was destroyed and transformed into cultivated land.
Today Mincana is a farm owned by the Dal Martello family. The Villa is immersed in the green of the countryside, covering an area of about 60 hectares, of which 19 are cultivated with Vineyard that represents, with the production of wine, the main activity of the company.
CATEGORY: Villas, Castles, Squares and Historical Gardens
THEME: Bike; Food and Wine; Family (suitable for children); Green (natural); Without barriers (architectural)
ADDRESS: via Mincana, 52
NOTES ON VISITS: upon reservation
TELEPHONE: 049525559
FAX NUMBER: 049525459
EMAIL: info@lamincana.it
SITE: www.lamincana.it