Villa/Palazzo Mocenigo, Oriago di Mira (VE)

Viewable from the upper deck of the Burchiello

 
 

Oriago, a district of Mira, altitude 4 m/13 feet above sea level; train station at Oriago on the Venezia-Adria line, or at Venezia Mestre about 4 km/2.5 miles to the northeast. The villa is located along the Ciclopista del Brenta [the bike route along the Brenta].


Villa Mocenigo, known also as Palazzo Mocenigo, was built in the eighteenth century along the Brenta Canal, by the noble Venetian Mocenigo family, who probably built this villa on top of the foundations of a previous villa.


Of the eighteenth century villa all that now remains is its exterior, the interior having been renovated many times to accommodate the different uses that have been located here.

 

The broad and low facade encompasses two floors surmounted by a tympanum [a rounded pediment] with the family coat-of-arms at its center, on top of which there are three large urns carved from Istrian stone.


At present (2012), the palazzo is being used as a university facility and houses part of the Dipartimento di Economia del Turismo [Department of the Economics of Tourism] of the Università di Venezia (Cà Foscari) and by CISET, Centro Internazionale di Studi sull'Economia Turistica [International Center of Studies on the Tourist Economy].


All photos by Paolo Bonavoglia, unless indicated otherwise


For an overall interactive map of the Veneto, showing all these villas and many more, please see this custom Google map