Villa Loredan di Stra was originally part of a single property that included the opposite building, from which it is now separated by a wire mesh fence. It was therefore a villa complex consisting of two symmetrical building blocks, separated by a courtyard and closed all around by a boundary wall, owned by the Venetian patrician Loredan family.
It was built in the very early years of the sixteenth century, with shapes and qualities capable of arousing the admiration of contemporaries. Originally the two buildings were called one "of the women" and the other "of the men". With the election as Doge, in 1752, Francesco Loredan decided to intervene on the villa to make it more consonant with the rank and prestige achieved: between 1754 and 1763 the entire complex was then subjected to a radical reconstruction, implemented by reusing part of the ancient structures of sixteenth-century origin. The two new buildings, similar in size, had a distinct functional destination: the western one was reserved for the use of the master, the one to the east for the use of the steward and other employees. The garden took on particular importance and was built with great care.
A few years after the reconstruction, which cost about 35,600 lire, in 1767 the family died out. In the absence of male heirs, the entire estate was the subject of numerous trials and clashes between heirs. Eventually, in 1777, most of the assets were assigned to Caterina Loredan, nephew of the doge, and then passed to his daughter Pisana. In the early nineteenth century the villa passed to the Carminati family, to which the coats of arms still present on the facade of the villa refer, which for the whole first half of the twentieth century remained in private possession. In 1959 the western building with the courtyard and the orchard (the current Villa Loredan) was sold to the I.N.A.P.L.I. (Institute for the Training and Improvement of Workers), which designated the building as a training center for industrial workers.
Between 1966 and 1967 it became the property of the municipality of Stra which, from then until the early 1980s, used it as a middle school. In June 1968 the municipality prepared an overall restoration project which proved to be too expensive for the municipal coffers and of which a first executive excerpt was carried out. In 1972 there were some collapses of ceilings on the second floor of the building, which required the reconstruction and painting of the parts that were in danger or already collapsed.
Finally, in 1989, the external park was rearranged. From the eighties and up to the early nineties the villa was the seat of the Consortium of footwear designers which made Stra and the Riviera del Brenta famous for quality footwear; from the nineties until the beginning of the 2000s it was the seat of the Municipal Library.
From 15 May 2019 Villa Loredan is used as the Municipal Headquarters. (Presentation taken from the artbonus.gov.it website)
Loredan Villa
Address: Via Roma, 1, 30039
Phone: +390499804011
Site:
http://www.comune.stra.ve.itLocation inserted by
Massimo Mescalchin