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Villa Foscari, known as La Malcontenta, is a Venetian villa built by Andrea Palladio in 1559, in Malcontenta, a town in the province of Venice, along the Naviglio del Brenta. This building was erected for the brothers Nicolò and Alvise Foscari.

THE VILLA

The villa consists of three floors, so as to distinguish the functional activities (on the ground floor), the “noble” ones (on the first floor), and those of storage of agricultural products (on the upper floor). The complex is symmetrical, so as to create an independent apartment for each of the owners. Ornaments and decorations are mostly made of terracotta: they were placed horizontally along the main facade while unfolding like “bands” on the sides of the building, reaching its back. The window on the rear facade is an evocation of a typical ancient Roman building (that of the baths), as like as the portico and the external stairs leading to it.

THE GARDEN

Inspired by the drawings of Paul Rodocanachi, routes for cars and pedestrians were created inside the garden. Rodocanachi had, in fact, already designed the civic museum of Neuilly-sur-Seine (Paris, France) and had equipped it with an extensive garden stretching on the banks of the Seine.

Next to the house, two square areas were then created to evoke the courtyards (or the two secret gardens), which Palladio depicted along with this villa in 1570, in one of his essays.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)