ITALIANspaceWISE | Villa Angarano

ARCHITECTURE & LIFESTYLE

uaderno July 2021 – Cambridge // London – U.K.

LE VIE ANGARANO Winery

+ Andrea Palladio

Discovering Villla Angarano trough its vineyards and architecture

Founder of ITALIANspaceWISE

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MARGHERITA CESCA NELDER-HAYNES

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With this publication we want to illustrate the essence of Italian Design through interesting, stimulating and curious stories describing uniqueness, quality and originality.

An ambitious editorial project developed between Cambridge and London during lockdown.

The aim of our publications is to raise awareness by supporting Made in Italy expressed in various forms: interiors, architecture, art, photography, design, trends, materials and much more.

This is our support in trying to help promoting small, medium and large Italian businesses and artisans who manufacture Made in Italy treasures and iconic design, with the hope of boosting the Italian economy post C19 pandemia in a small but hopefully meaningful way. ©ITALIANspaceWISE 2021 – Cambridge UK

ARCHITECTURE & LIFESTYLE

uaderno This month we are visiting Villa Angarano, a splendid Palladian villa in Bassano del Grappa, in the province of Vicenza, which belongs to and is still inhabited by the Bianchi Michiel sisters, descendants of an ancient dogal family.

The villa's project is included in the "Quattro Libri dell'Architettura" (1570) by Andrea Palladio, who thus describes it: "It is this place famous for the fine wines that are made there, and for the fruits that come there, and much more for the courtesy of the owner ".

It was in 1548 that Giacomo Angarano commissioned his illustrious friend Andrea Palladio to build the current prestigious villa conceived, not only as a farm, but also as a place to stay. Among the many Vicenza nobles, Palladio maintains a certain recognition towards Giacomo Angarano, who realises three projects for him, a palace in Vicenza, which will host the wedding of Palladio's daughter, in 1564, a bridge over the Cismon stream and the villa of Angarano. In particular, the architect reports in his books how much the villa enjoyed the proximity of the Brenta river, both for the primary good of the water, both for the number of fish and above all for the possibility that the river was navigable.

The project presented by the architect Andrea Palladio around 1548 for the residence of his great friend Giacomo Angarano, was only partially realised, in fact, only the two side wings belong to the famous architect, who considered building two "U" bent barchesse, which followed the particularly protruding central body.

The works began in 1556, but the central body remained unfinished. The project came to a halt when Stefano, the son of Giacomo Angarano died in 1558, who was forced to sell the villa in Angarano in order to be able to return the dowry to his son's widow. The consequence for the villa was immediate, the works stopped and the building passed into the hands of several owners, up to Paolo Gradenigo, who married Maria Molin in 1654.

The Gardenigo family, important exponents and senators of the Republic of Venice, were the architects of the variations of the complex, which we can still see today. The central body was built between the end of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries by the architect Domenico Margutti, a pupil of Baldassare Longhena

On the barchessa on the right side we find a small noble church of San Maria Maddalena, a work also attributed to Margutti, while the eighteen statues that crown the structure are

by Giacomo Cassetti, known as Marinali, and represent sacred subjects. Subsequently, the villa passed into the hands of the Pisans, in the early nineteenth century once again into the hands of the Venetian Michiel family, and later to the Bianchi Michiel counts.

Even today, Villa Angarano is owned by the Bianchi Michiel family, who live in harmony within these walls, passing down the importance of a prestigious past from generation to generation. The villa is located in a land of alluvial origin, immersed in a climate particularly suitable for the cultivation of vines and olive trees, probably thanks to the breeze that blows during the day and night from the Valsugana.

In 1996 the Villa was included in the list of Italian sites UNESCO heritage together with the city of Vicenza and the other Palladian villas. ©ITALIANspaceWISE 2021 – Cambridge UK

©Selvestrel Alberto - LIGURIA

©Selvestrel Alberto - LIGURIA

©Selvestrel Alberto - LIGURIA

ARCHITECTURE & LIFESTYLE

uaderno The area, as Palladio himself testifies, has continued to cultivate and produce excellent wine for many centuries. Today it is part of the DOC Breganze, the Torcolato wine and Breganze wine route, an enotourist route that extends into the Vicenza foothills, in an area between the Astico and Brenta rivers.

Plenty of events organised thought-out the year. In June aperitivo surrounded by the vineyards and various wine tastings. Do not miss the traditional Grape Festival of San Eusebio and its market inside the Villa Angarano in mid-September.

The Heritage A historical house surrounded by 8-hectare vineyard, a venetian family that numbers Dogi among its members, a direct lineage, an entrepreneur, a destiny. That is Giovanna’s challenge, the second of five sisters who committed herself with passion and determination.

Here grapes have been ripening since the 13th Century, and women’s strength makes the vine’s fruit. Embraced by two column porches of a Palladian Villa, we are in the eastern part of DOC Breganze area, at the foot of Mount Castellaro and at the beginning of Asiago Plateau.

Mount Grappa is on the background, the river Brenta is on our right. Among soft hills and century-old olive groves, in a landscape reminiscent of nineteenth-century postcards, we produce wines of excellence.

Thanks to a sharp temperature range between night and day, and thanks also to the morning wind blowing from North to South like a light wing beat of a migrant birds’ flock, it takes shape a microclimate that favors the varietal conservation of a vineyard unique for its type.

Le Vie Angarano is Organically Certified, as well as follower of biodynamic principles.. Our vine pruners have trained according to Simonit & Sirch method with the objective of pruning the vine respecting and preserving the health condition of the plant.

The Winery In the Wine Cellar, dynamism and modernity are in the atmosphere. It is the hive of the farm, the emblem of the hard work.

Here we transform the raw material to prepare the base of our quality fines. The steel shines, high-tech tools daily monitor the development of processes, but we never disregard the knowledge of the elders have handed down with great wisdom.

In the Barrel Room we create the great blends that tell about our land. It is time management with no hurry. Here wine rests and ages in seasoned oak barriques.

Silence is a symphony and the suffused lightening softens the long shadows on the wide vaulted ceiling. If you close your eyes, you can already perceive what will happen: an explosion of tastes, scents and intense colours. ©ITALIANspaceWISE 2021 – Cambridge UK

©Selvestrel Alberto - LIGURIA

©Selvestrel Alberto - LIGURIA

©Selvestrel Alberto - LIGURIA

ARCHITECTURE & LIFESTYLE

uaderno The Architecture The ground floor is adorned with pilasters with Tuscan capitals, the first floor has pilasters with Ionic capitals, while on the second floor there are baroque pilasters with volutes. The central part of the facade culminates in a pediment with sloping broken arches, holding two recumbent statues, plus a central statue standing on a pedestal. Columns of the Tuscan order are lined up in the barchesse.

The statues present in the complex are eighteen. Of these, four are located inside the church, represent sacred subjects and are attributed to a sculptor of considerable artistic value, Giacomo Cassetti known as Marinali (1682-1750).

©ITALIANspaceWISE 2021 – Cambridge UK

©Selvestrel Alberto - LIGURIA

©Selvestrel Alberto - LIGURIA

ARCHITECTURE & LIFESTYLE

uaderno

In this issue of Quaderno // CONTRIBUTORS MARGHERITA CESCA NELDER-HAYNES Concept Development & Editorial ILARIA ZILIOTTO for Villa Angarano

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