One of the numerous estates of the Contarini family in the Este area, later passed to the Da Mula and Albrizzi families. Noteworthy for its position, the large enclosing wall and the barchessa, while the residential building is not significant.
Still positioned on the western edge of the city, the large area of the buildings, consisting of garden, park, orchards and rural courtyard has been differently distributed over the last four centuries, but the general layout of the agricultural estate has remained: open to the countryside, with the imposing barchessa (mentioned more than the villa) that divides it in two and the long perimeter wall that also includes part of the cultivated fields.
The estate is located to the west of the Via Augustea, which marks the western border of the city. A large estate since the 17th century, progressively equipped with comforts for summer retreats, divided between rural area and garden, with an important barchessa and a fence that is almost a work of art: all the classic aspects of country estates, but here at the gates of the city, indeed above the remains of the Roman city. In fact, the estate corresponds to significant traces of Roman settlement. The remains of a domus from the imperial period at the edge of the Via Augustea are the source of many findings that have been reorganized in the National Archaeological Museum Atestino.
The residential part (from the 15th or 16th century) has been significantly altered in the 19th century, with probable height increase, modifications to openings and internal reorganization. In any case, the building is not designed to stand out in the landscape and remains discreet in the shade of an impressive vegetation and the tall wall along the Via Augustea.
Of the barchessa, the sturdy porch is noted, indicating good agricultural yield, and the apparent independence from the residential part (of the factors and administrators, never of the owners), as if it had always remained at the center of a stand-alone productive activity.
The villa presented itself to the visitor (who arrived from Bisatto and the "Sostegno della Brancaglia") from the north, with an articulated formal garden with flower beds, well separated from the rural area. To the south of the villa, where a park with ancient trees now prevails, an open space for a giant rural yard, open to the outside and served by the large barchessa.
The simple and classic design of the pilasters and arches of the barchessa del Serraglio is similar to that of many of the barchesse that Palladio designs to complement his villas.
The park with its large trees that today hides the villa and barchessa from the view of passersby has become the protagonist of the internal landscape of the estate and qualifies its historicity, even though it is not in the original position, occupying the garden and the rural courtyard, and is relatively young.
