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Villa Emo Capodilista stands on the hill of La Montecchia, a medieval village in the Euganei Mountain Range Regional Park. It was designed by the painter and architect Dario Varotari, a pupil of Paolo Veronese, and built in 1568 – originally intended as a hunting pavilion. Today, the estate is still inhabited by the Emo Capodilista family and also houses a renowned vineyard.

THE VILLA

The building features a square plan that is also applied to the internal room distribution: there are four rooms on the ground floor and four on the first one, divided by a staircase made of four Greek-crossed flights. From above, large loggias overlook the garden and the surrounding countryside. The rooms are decorated with frescoes depicting mythological scenes, episodes of family history, Roman history and various embellishments such as cherubs and friezes.
The “Room of the Vineyard” shows a frescoed ceiling with a detailed pergola of leaves and bunches of grapes, while on the walls there is a garden pavilion with walls made of vine plants.

THE GARDEN

The Italian-style garden, with its peculiar parterre, covers a square surface divided into geometrically shaped portions with a semi-circle. Four flights of stairs, crowned by portals with wrought iron gates, are placed in the centre of each one of the four sides, allowing access to the villa. The flowerbeds of the internal garden are embellished with roses or sparse yews (Taxus baccata) pruned in a conical shape. In the external area of the garden, there are some English oaks (Quercus robur), magnolias (Magnolia grandiflora), cypresses (Cupressus sempervirens), and Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) that perfectly blend with the forest in the background.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)