Villa Trissino

In The Four Books of Architecture, Palladio states that he began a villa project in Meledo (now a hamlet of the municipality of Sarego) for the brothers Ludovico and Francesco Trissino, prominent figures of the Vicentine aristocracy and Palladian patrons not only in Meledo, but also for their own city palace in contrà Riale (1558) and for a suburban villa. The engraving in the treatise depicts an imposing structure articulated on multiple levels, clearly inspired by the development of ancient Roman acropolis complexes and featuring a circular central body surmounted by a dome, similar to the nearly contemporary Villa La Rotonda in Vicenza by Palladio himself. It is not possible to confirm whether this project had a real chance of being completed; however, there are clear traces of the start of a Palladian project in the imposing stone foundations of the buildings along the river and in the two barchesse with finely crafted Tuscan columns. The most realistic hypothesis suggests that a Palladian project for Villa Trissino did exist, though not necessarily identical to the one presented in the Four Books. The latter seems rather to be the development of a theoretical hypothesis imagined for the actual site of Meledo which, if realized in its entirety, would have constituted one of Palladio’s most ambitious civil projects.

The dovecote tower is equipped with fireplaces and decorated with grotesque frescoes attributable to Eliodoro Forbicini (a Veronese painter who had already worked on the Palladian Palazzo Chiericati and Palazzo Thiene), a clear sign of a use that was not merely utilitarian.

The complex remained in a state of neglect for a long time, and its preservation was jeopardized. In 2009, the Istituto Regionale Ville Venete granted funding for a partial recovery of the structures. During 2015, the Palladian-era cellars were restored, bringing to light internal traces of an ancient small bridge connecting to the other bank of the Brendola River. Furthermore, the entire barchessa overlooking the river was renovated, including its three large halls, the Hall of Frescoes (so named for the presence of the unique grotesques painted by Forbicini and fully recovered), the large sixteenth-century red marble fireplace, the rooms on the upper floor of the barchessa itself, as well as the dovecote tower and an apartment located in the nearby fifteenth-century Gothic house. The Italian garden facing the barchessa, the walkway, and the park in front of the garden were also restored.