Like any villa residence of the Venetian patricians, the complex consisted of a Sunday building , two side barchesse and, at the rear, a brolo and a small garden. Over the years, the garden was expanded and, during the 18th century, reached a considerable size.
The great doge and historian Marco Foscarini, one of the most politically and culturally important figures of the eighteenth-century Veneto, died in this palace in 1763.
The palace then became the property of Andrea Erizzo, who made transformations to its architectural layout and outbuildings.
It was finally owned by the Serravalle family, before being acquired in 1876 by the municipality, which made it its municipal seat. In the meantime the garden had been destroyed and the statues that adorned it were moved to the entrance of the new forum boario.
a bit of history
The villa, built around 1570 by Nicolò Foscarini da San Stae, served simultaneously as a resort, a farm, and the site for promoting "industrial" activities, for example, a factory for processing coral, then fished in Dalmatia, promoted by Doge Marco Foscarini.
When, in the early 1800s, the Foscarini heirs decided to sell the villa to Andrea Erizzo, an important Venetian politician ambassador to the Court of St. Petersburg and Provveditore generale straordinario with supervision over Polesine, Padovano, Vicentino and Bassanese, the Foscarini villa included a number of assets: the dominical body with the two barchesse, the oratory, the stables, the sheds with barns and granaries, other adjacencies for the gardener's use, the garden with cedars, the wood, the fishpond, the mound, and assets consisting of the numerous houses with workshops along the road that runs along the river. These are stores occupied by local artisans: the blacksmith, the shoemaker, the hatter, food stores, and some cafes.
Under the superintendence of Andrea Erizzo, first of all, a neoclassical renovation was carried out, retaining the Ionic half-columns but interposing an attic plane between the entablature and the tympanum; and the rooms on the piano nobile were decorated with stuccoes, the rooms on the second floor and the exterior walls of the building with wall paintings.
The mansion first passed into the hands of the Serravalle brothers and then, in 1876, was purchased by the municipality, which turned it into a town hall. The repeated changes of hands caused the loss of the exterior paintings, the adjacent oratory, and the grand 18th-century garden whose statues were transferred to the entrance of the Forum Boario.
The two barchesse are, today, put to other use, one a building for the middle school and the other for public services. And for the past few years, the villa has been undergoing a radical renovation and restoration.
