Guided Tour of the Castelletto of Belvedere Park

The Castelletto of Villa Belvedere is an evocative as well as fascinating nineteenth-century complex commissioned by Vincenzo Paolo Barzizza, son of Antonio Vincenzo Barzizza and Giovanna Erizzo (the last heir of the noble Erizzo family), with the aim of creating a secluded and privileged place where he could gather to himself or in the company of intellectual friends with whom he often loved to entertain himself.
The Castelletto, more than just a tower, is a vast complex in the shape of a small castle, equipped, in plan, with four rooms (two purposely left open from the beginning) next to which rises the five-story octagonal tower, on the remains of a cylindrical basement, a mock ruin where an arched and pointed arch window opens.
In the turret one ascends by means of an elegant stone spiral staircase to the room of the actual Belvedere, equipped with a neo-Gothic mullioned window on each side of the octagon, from which, indeed, the view sweeps all around 360 degrees. In the final section a spiral staircase leads to the top floor, which consists of a terrace adorned with battlements, from which an even wider panorama can be admired.
Inside the Castelletto, built between 1840 and 1850, there are still remnants of a fresco by 19th-century artist Giovanni de Min depicting "Venice in History and the Arts."
But there is more! The Torretta hides underneath it a mysterious cave, richly articulated in several compartments, communicating with the Villa through a tunnel that was later walled up, while other underground routes, now obstructed, were said to lead to nearby castles (in Noale and Stigliano; and also in Castelliviero and Salzano). The underground route measures about 250 meters and is well articulated in alternating caverns, tunnels, tunnels with a small underground lake that flows into the open air, where it winds in a continuous evocative up and down.
Next to the tower lies an artificial lake by excavating it, which was able to form the high ground for the castelletto. The architectural complex is located in a charming English garden between Mulini di Sopra and Mulini di Sotto in the historic center of Mirano, both lapped by the Muson River.

Duration of the visit: about 40 minutes