With the name of the last doge of Venice, the 18th-century urban villa on the bend of the Bisatto canal, near the historic Ponte delle Grazie, is particularly fascinating for its garden and the representative avenue as well as its location along the canal. It is still privately owned today, with numerous changes in ownership, even recent ones.
In the medieval era, there was a fort with a tower and merlons in the area of the villa to protect the city gate of San Martino, today known as Ponte delle Grazie.
In the 18th century, the peak and decline of the Venetian presence in Veneto, Este appeared surrounded by estates of the lagoon nobility with villas, gardens, and orchards, favored by navigable accessibility from Venice along the Bisatto. The most prestigious villas, like that of the Manins, have a direct landing from the property to the water.
By the end of the 1700s, the villa was already appearing in its current form, with ornamental spires on the roof, east-aligned adjacent buildings, a barn near the canal, and a low wall towards via Canevedo, enclosing a large plot up to the Bisatto Canal, divided between orchards and the appurtenances of the buildings, all without trees.
Originally, the villa was built for the Basadonna family, as indicated in the drawing, later passed to the Morosini family and subsequently to the Manins: Ludovico Manin, the last doge of Venice, owned it in 1797.
The end of the Venetian Republic brought changes to the management of the territory: for example, the canals became effectively public, with their banks accessible along roads outside the properties. Villa Manin entered the 19th century detached from the Bisatto canal, divided from its appurtenances: ready to become an urban villa connected to the city beyond the bridge.
The current situation, little changed in the last 50 years regarding the buildings, is thriving for the garden area: the plants overshadow the buildings, surpassing them in height, the avenue is perfect, and even in the reduced appurtenances around, the greenery filters nicely the complex from the external paths.
The architecture follows the canons of the 15th and 16th-century Venetian villa, with some decorative additions that underline the attention of the Venetian patricians who have succeeded in ownership. The design of the villa is completely integrated with that of the entrance area arrangement: a garden that enhances the building as a privileged urban palace, with no concession to productive activities, which are practically absent.
In a beautiful 19th-century fence, featuring the characteristics of the urban villa, the main entrance gate captures attention, with large marbles of female figures that stand out against the green of the trees and the double row of the garden.
