Villa Badoer

Arriving in Fratta Polesine, a city about 20 km from Rovigo, you have the impression of having been transported to another era. The center is characterized by ancient aristocratic homes which stand out in contrast with the surrounding flat agricultural landscape. Villa Badoer, the only UNESCO site in the province of Rovigo, built by Andrea Palladio in 1556, is the architectural fulcrum on which the center of Fratta Polesine was built. The Villa stands out for its visual dominance over the surrounding landscape, as it is elevated above the ground level, having been built on a stone base in order to safeguard it from possible river flooding and amplify its scenic impact. La Badoera, as it is often called, almost as if it were a personification, born as an agricultural company for the control and management of the land is at the same time the emblem of the union of Francesco Badoer and Lucietta Loredan, exponents of two important Venetian noble families, as well as the friendship between Francesco Badoer and his brother-in-law Giorgio Loredan, a bond celebrated by the frescoes created inside the main floor by Giallo Fiorentino. The Villa is a triumph of sobriety and elegance that every year attracts tourists from all over the world, interested in seeing live the work of the great master, Andrea di Pietro dalla Gondola, known to us all as Palladio.