Along the Brenta Canal

Le rive da una e dall'altra parte di questo fiume sono tutte piene di palagi e le deliziose habitazioni de' Nobili, e più opulenti cittadini, con Horti, Giardini, e ben popolati Villaggi, a segno tale, che chi naviga sopra di esso rassembra andare a diporto in mezzo ad una Cittý per il corso di 16 miglia che formano quasi un continuato Borgo, il quale unisce la Metropoli di quello Stato colla Città di Padova. ( 1697 Vincenzo Coronelli ).

Attended by Casanova, Dante Alighieri, Galileo, Byron and d' Annunzio; decorated by Tiepolo and Canaletto; celebrated by Goethe and Goldoni the ' Riviera del Brenta ' had royal guests: the King of France and the King of Russia. Napoleon the Absburgs and the Savoias sojourned here.

'A river - Gabriele d' Annunzio will write in his ' Il Fuoco ' once beautiful and glorious in the sonnets of the gay abbots when they went down along its current on board of the ' burchielli ' full of music and pleasures.'

The 17th April 1345 the Great Council of the Serenissima Republic of Venice abrogated a low which had prohibited the citizens of Venice from having proprieties on the mainland and some business of Venician Noblemen moved to the mainland and along the banks of the Brenta Canal.

The possibility of widening the profits and intensify the cultivation of the fields on the mainland led the Noblemen to ask themselves how they could control closely the production. The country villas were built and they expressed the new necessities. In one residential complex they presented the house of the owner and the wings destined to the various services; several kinds of Villas were created: the Farm - for whom had in agricolture a new form of richness; the Temple, meeting piont for artists; the Palace, used for important public moments of the family and place of great feasts and banquets; even sumptuous residences, works of famous intellectuals and architects, decorated and frescoed by great painters in order to testify a season of splendours.
Great architects - Palladio, Scamozzi, Frigimelica - created summer residences for the noblemen which spent their time of ' villeggiatura ' on the mainland in a true ' arcadia' of ladies and cavaliers who played, sang, loved and told stories ( Sagredo, L'Arcadia in Villa 1667)

The ' Villa Veneta ' created the phenomenon of the ' Villeggiatura ' which appeared in Veneto between the XVth and XVI centuries and which lasted for the following two, till the fall of the glorious Republic of Venice in 1797. That is why in this region 2000 villas were built and they witnesses a long architectural culture.
Since the XVIth century sumptuous summer residences had been built along the banks of rivers and canals within reach of Venice. The Brenta Canal, which linked, togather with other rivers Venice and Padua, was the fashionable canal, place of enjoyment and ideal continuation of the Grand Canal in Venice, where more than 70 villas were built. Here, not far from the town, the richest noblemen spent their holidays, leaving Venice on board of confortable boats called ' burchielli '- beautiful boats - which sailed up the Brenta canal; the vessels were moved with oars from St. Mark's Square, across the lagoon, to Fusina, and then they were pulled by horses to Padua, across the Brenta Canal.

It was the time of enjoyment, of the ' smanie per la villeggiatura ' as Carlo Goldoni writes , when ' all the people have an immense freedom, game and table are always ready and so are dancing feasts and plays '.
The trip was charming and enjoyable; in the slow proceeding across the villas and the willow-trees, ladies and 'cicisbei', noblemen and adventurers, actors and artists rallegrated life on board making the river tour picturesque and pleasing. Moreover ,in those days, the noblemen used to ' attend the villas' and the gay bands went from one villa to the other, from one feast to the other.

At the end of the XVIIIth century, with the fall of the Republic due to the arrival of Napoleon, the end of the ' sweet life ' in Venice reached also the mainland.
The trips and the number of the passengers diminished and at last the service ceased. Proposed again as a touristic itinerary by the Provincial Institution for Tourism in Padua in the 60ies, the service started again with a high increase in passengers.

The Battelli del Brenta organize excursions from Padua to Venice ( close on Mondays ), stopping at the beautiful and most famous villas, linked to great names , among whom Palladio and Tiepolo for the guided tours of the interiors.
And following the historical tour of the ancient ' burchielli ' of the XVIIIth century, the trip starts from Padua and after passing six Locks, real water lifts, which allow the boats to descend a level of 12 metres, and nine turning bridges, and it reaches Venice in her fantastic marble scenary in St. Mark' s Square.

Coming down the river from Padua to Venice, the starting point of the tour is the old Lock of the Porte Contarine in the historical heart in Padua or from the Portello, ancient river port with its beautiful staircase of the XVIth century, decorated by Tintoretto and its elegant Door, in white marble from Istria , which looks like a Triumph Arch, with eight columns and a small tower with a clock: this was the station of all the boats which, by sailing rivers and canals, linked Padua and its province and the lagoon of Venice.

Sailing along the Piovego Canal and coasting the old walls of thr XVIth century with the serious bastions, immersed in the thick and luxurious vegetation, it is possible to go under the Graissi Bridge, reching Noventa Padovana, the ancient river port in Padua. Once the boats stopped here and the passengers and the goods reached Padua by cart. It lost its function when the Piovego Canal was opened. It allowed the boats to enter the town of Padova. Nevertheless several noble villas are a heritage of its past importance.

Among the villas we meet the lonely and superb Villa Giovannelli, frescoed inside, built for the Giovannellis at the end of the XVIIth century. It shows in its stucture both the influence of Andrea Palladio and the new artistic trend created by Baldassarre Longhena; the unique monumental pentagonal pronao, the high corinthian columns with statues on the pediment, the great stiaircase created later by Giorgio Massari in 1738 make powerful and scenic its outside aspect.

After passing the Locks in Noventa Padovana and Stra and descending the level of water, we get to Stra, where the Brenta Canal takes form from the Brenta River. Here the grandeur of Villa Pisani triumphs. The Doge' s Palace on the mainland was built for the Pisanis between 1720 and 1740 as a status-symbol of the family; it is a palace rather than a villa , with a main facade decorated by enormous statues, painted inside by the greatest artists of the XVIIIth century: Guarana, Rosalba Carriera and Francesco Simonini: a monumental work which guest inbelieveble masterpieces - The Triumph of Baccus by Guarana, the Pompeian Room in Empire Style, the superb Ball Room decorated by Giambattista Tiepolo with a frsco representing the Glorification of the Pisanis, a work which would be the last one by the painter in Italy, a last present of this great painter of skies and angels. A eleven hectere park belongs to the villa, where we can meet a labyrinth, an heritage of the glorious time of the ' villeggiatura '.
By sailing we go to Fiesso d' Artico, where it is possible to admire Villa Soranzo with a frescoed facade and then to Dolo for a visit of the ancient Mills, important, a long time ago, for the economy of the area. It would be a pleasure here to go for a short walk along this river village.

After passing the Lock in Dolo we sail through the green of the willow-trees, the villas and the turning bridges to Mira, celebrated by Carlo Goldoni in1760. ' Here we are in Mira, decorated with beautiful palaces and gardens. We leave the river, we breathe, walk, have lunch and then we come back on the boat. The famous horse pulls it and we go along the Brenta Canal. There are people singing, smoking, playing or simply talking about the sad lunch.'
In Mira we meet the high concentration if villas, we can admire the famous facades along the Canal, the green bends, the untouched corners where the willow- trees caresses water. It is important to underline the presence of Villa Barchessa Valmarana with a wide portico; Villa Widmann, typical residence of the XVIIIth century with a delicious garden; Villa Corner, a theatre of banquets and long feasts of the family itself - Gaspare Gozzi Writes they lasted even for a week; Villa Foscarini, where Lord Byron spent two years ( 1817 -1818 ). We reach then Oriago, an old theatre of wars between Padua and Venice, with the famous column - the border line between the two towns.

Among the several villas with a Venician atmosphere, we meet Villa Gradenigo of the XVIth century. We can see only the central body frescoed by Benedetto Caliari, Paolo Veronese' s brother.
And always sailing we get to Malcontenta, where we can admire the elegance and the grandeur of Villa Foscari, called La Malcontenta, one of the masterpieces By the genius of Andrea Palladio. It is an example of Temple with a great pronao reflecting , melancholic and superb, on the water of the Brenta Canal.
The navigation of the river continues and after passing the Lock in Moranzani and descending the last fall we reach Venice and the magic scenary of St. Mark' s Square, where our fantastic tour gets to its end.



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