Venezia's Brenta Canal

Bike Veneto, Italy - Venice Province

A great ride or walk outside to take during your visit to Venice, is just across the lagoon along the Brenta Canal. This is a charming and attractive location just a few kilometers from Venice: the Brenta Riviera, a place full of artistic and cultural interest. Between the 16th and the 18th centuries, some of the most important families from Venice had their summer residences built on the Riviera that runs alongside the Brenta river, a waterway that connects Venice to Padua.

The best way to explore along the “Naviglio Brenta” is by bicycle but you can also make your way by walking and using the local buses.  The route runs from Fusina to Stra for 24 kms (one way).  It is a flat ride and popular bicycle route so cars are very usual to your presence.  There is no need to ride on the primary streets unless you wish to get over to visit a villa or shop; there are small secondary roads to follow that run parallel to the canal.  This is a safe and fun ride for all levels of cyclist and a great day of active travelling.

If you are visiting and wish a one day guided tour I offer a great ride that can be tailored to your level

About the Brenta:

The river begins in the Lakes of Caldonazzo and Levico, near Trento and passes through the Valsugana (SuganaValley) and enters the Venetoplain at Bassano del Grappa.  The history of the river is traced by the damage caused by its changing course due to floors, which resulted in bed changes.  Following the flood of 589, which also modified the courses of the Mincio, Adige, Piave, and Tagliamento rivers, the Brenta veered from the Paduaand Malamocco branch, taking a course toward Chiaggio. 

Again, the river broke its banks in 1152 and changed course directly into the Venice Lagoon, causing silt built up in the Port of San Nicolòand around the main part of the Venezia city.  This change resulted in the built up of reed beds and thus malaria began to develop so the Venetian began works on making small canals to divert the rivers flow.  Often these works caused conflict the neighbouring community of Padua, at the time the territory of the Republic of Veneziawas limited to the Dukedom of Venice, whose 1375 boundary mark, El Termen, can still be seen at Oriago Termine.   Four canals were constructed between 1457 and 1896 which gradually turned the waters away from the Lido basin towards Chioggia and the sea.

The Naviglio Brenta or Brenta Canalthat we ride along today is the result of a system of locks and swing bridges to make the canal easy to navigate.  The gates at Dolo were particularly important since they were installed around a small island to form the only boatyard along the canal.  The last lock downstream was once located at Moranzani, just before the river enter the lagoon of Fusina.  The canal was a vital commercial waterway (many famous UScanal systems were patterned after these works), that carried goods and passengers.  Barges (burchi) were pulled up-stream by horses, and gondolas and passenger boats were “poled” along the river carrying groups of aristocrats to their country houses or parties.

Life in the Villa: 

There are thousands of country houses still standing in the Veneto and northeast Italy.  In the 15^th century, after the Venetian Republic’s conquest of its “mainland” territories, The Venetian investments slowly shifted from the Orient to landholdings.  The old nobility had occupied estates throughout the provinces of Padua and Treviso as early as the 14^th century, but with the change in trade routes and discovery of the New World the Republic no longer held a monopoly on trade so capital was invested into less profitable but safer investments.

The life of the villa combined two very different styles: the contemplative pleasure of the country life, observed from the humanistic standpoint of the epoch (which is why the country villa design draws upon the classical world in design), and the cultivation of the country estate itself, whose the affairs the proprietor managed in person.

Over the centuries the use of the country house went through server changes. Originally used as a gentleman’s country house in the 15th century to a Palace to show a “Bella Figura” (a good image) among their social equals.  The elegant but restrained forms of the Renaissance gave way to imposing building complexes surrounded by large parks ornamented with pavilions, fountains, statues, woods, and whatever else was the latest style of the moment.  Most of spring and summer were spent in the villas and great balls, hunting parties, and games were played.  Then was the weather cooled the owners would move back into the city, just in time to Carnival (carnival during that period lasted up to 4 months). Carlo Coldoni (a Venetian playwright) wrote a trilogy describing the villa season and in many of the 1970 – 1980 classic Italian TV movies the villa life is depicted with lots of truisms (even if they seem obscure to us today).

NOT TO BE MISSED:

Villa Foscari known as “La Malcontenta”
Villa Foscari is the first villa located on the road leading out of Venice. It is near Malcontenta, a small village next to the Lagoon, from which the villa has taken its nickname. This wonderful villa was built by Palladio around the first half of the 18th century for the Foscari brothers, Nicolò and Alvise, who then made it their summer residence. The monumental, grandiose architectural style is a reflection of the ancient power of the Foscari family, which was once one of the most important in Venice. The interiors are decorated by Battista Franco e Gian Battista Zelotti

Villa Widmann Rezzonico Foscari
This marvelous Villa is in Mira and was built on the wishes of the Scerimann family, an aristocratic Persian family, at the beginning of the 18th century. It was completed some decades later by the Widmann family, in a style that is reminiscent of the French Rococo fashion. The main lounge is a wonderful sight to see, full of frescoes by Giuseppe Angeli, a pupil of Giambattista Piazzetta, and Gerolamo Mengozzi Colonna, who worked with Tiepolo. The Villa is surrounded by huge gardens filled with cypress and horse-chestnut trees, interspersed by several stone statues of gods, nymphs and cupids. A Barchessa and a small church where Elisabetta and Arianna Widmann are buried are also part of the Villa’s buildings.

Barchessa Alessandri
The Barchessa at Villa Alessandri is located in Mira, right opposite the Brenta river. It is guarded by a gate topped by two huge busts of the Emperors Caesar and Alexander, which were sculpted in honor of the villa’s first owner, Cesare Alessandri.
The Barchessa is the home of a superb series of frescoes that have been attributed to Giannantonio Pellegrini, the person who inspired Tiepolo a few decades later. The remarkable frescoes depict a part of the tale of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, such as the moment when Daphne turns into a tree to escape from Apollo.

Barchessa Valmarana
The Barchessa Valmarana stands on one of the prettiest sites on the Brenta Riviera, just a short distance from Mira. The Barchessa was originally part of Villa Valmarana, a building from the 16th century whose main structure was demolished at the beginning of the 20th century. The villa’s two external buildings, which were once used as a warehouse and a lodge, survived the demolition. The latter was opened to the public after restoration work which uncovered the wonderful frescoes painted by Michelangelo Schiavoni, also known as “il Chiozzotto”.

Villa Pisani
This is often thought to be the most magnificent, grandiose building on the Riviera. Villa Pisani is in Stra, about 8 km from Padua. It was built around 1720 in a style that brings together Classical and Baroque elements, producing an effect that is worthy of the palaces in Versailles and Caserta. Visitors to the Villa can still see the original furnishings in the 114 rooms and the magnificent frescoes painted by Gianbattista Tiepolo between 1760 and 1762 in the ballroom. The huge park surrounding the villa is filled with statues and buildings, such as the exedra, the archeological hill, the ice-house, the lemon-house and the stables.

Villa Foscarini-Rossi
Villa Foscarini-Rossi was built for the Foscarini family around the end of the 16th century by the famous architects Vincenzo Scamozzi, Francesco Contini and Giuseppe Jappelli, who followed a design by Andrea Palladio. The Villa is located in Stra, just a short distance from Villa Pisani. The Villa contains rooms that mingle Classical and Gothic elements, all filled with frescoes by pupils of Jappelli. The Villa also has two permanent exhibitions of the important Brenta shoemaking tradition.