Villa Hériot Waterfront

Giudecca, Veneto · Late 1920s

Two eclectic villas and a garden built for the Hériot family on the site of a former soap factory, given to the city in 1947 and now home to cultural institutions.

At a glance

Villa Hériot Waterfront stands as testament to Venice’s appeal to wealthy foreign residents in the early 20th century. Built in the late 1920s with distinctive Byzantine-influenced decoration, the complex — two villas set in a garden — later served as a public school and now houses multiple cultural organisations, including the institute that keeps the memory of twentieth-century Venice.

History

The French Hériot family bought the former soap-factory site on Giudecca and had it developed between 1926 and 1929, to a design by Raffaele Mainella with engineer Mario Radaelli and surveyor Merlo. The result was two villas in an eclectic, pseudo-Byzantine-Venetian style — columns of Istrian marble, capitals, beams and carved patere — set in a decorative garden. In 1947 the heirs transferred the two villas to the City of Venice; in 1949 the municipality allocated them as public schools. The main villa became the Carlo Goldoni elementary school, open until the late 1980s; the smaller dependance housed first the open-air “D. Manin” school, then, from 1984, the Bettini municipal pedagogical library.

Since 2007 the complex has been the Casa della Memoria e della Storia del ‘900 veneziano (“House of Memory and History of 20th-century Venice”), run in part by IVESER — the Istituto veneziano per la storia della Resistenza e della società contemporanea — alongside the Università Internazionale dell’Arte (Venice campus) and the Société Européenne de Culture.

What you see

Mainella’s design reflects eclectic architectural principles popular among Venetian villas of the period. The structures display abundant decorative elements—rosettes, ceramic plaques, slender columns, and Byzantine-inspired motifs. These ornamental details animate the waterfront façade and distinguish the villa from Venice’s historic palazzo tradition. Around both buildings, the garden that gave the complex its “decorative orchard” character in Mainella’s own time still opens onto the lagoon: lawns, hedges and a single-storey pavilion facing the water, with the smaller second villa set apart among the trees.

Cultural significance

Villa Hériot exemplifies the early 20th-century phenomenon of wealthy foreigners building second homes in Venice, often on reclaimed industrial sites. Its transition from private residence to public school, and then to a house of memory and cultural institute, reflects changing attitudes toward heritage and civic use in twentieth-century Venice.

Key facts

Address: Villa Heriot, Calle Michelangelo, 54/P, 30133 Venice
Coordinates: 45.4239952, 12.3400021
Built: 1926–1929, for the Hériot family
Architect: Raffaele Mainella, with Mario Radaelli and Merlo
Transferred to the City of Venice: 1947
Today: Casa della Memoria e della Storia del ‘900 veneziano (from 2007), IVESER, Università Internazionale dell’Arte, Société Européenne de Culture
Phone: 041 5201959
Official website: https://www.labiennale.org/it/bacheca/405

Practical information

The villa currently operates as home to multiple cultural organisations. Hours and visiting arrangements should be confirmed directly with the institutions housed here; IVESER organises guided tours of the complex.

Getting there

Villa Hériot Waterfront is located on Giudecca, accessible by vaporetto (water bus) from central Venice. The site overlooks the Giudecca Canal and is situated near Calle Michelangelo.

See the place

Video from the Cultural Heritage Online archive

Photo gallery

Main entrance of Villa Hériot with marble portico, carved arches and balustraded loggia above — Villa Hériot, Giudecca — main entrance portico. Photo: Luigi De Marchi (2008)

Four-light arched window with marble columns and Byzantine relief panels on the brick facade of Villa Hériot — Villa Hériot, Giudecca — four-light window with Byzantine reliefs. Photo: Luigi De Marchi (2008)

Lawn and hedges of the Villa Hériot garden, with the main villa visible in the background — Villa Hériot, Giudecca — the garden grounds. Photo: Luigi De Marchi (2008)

Inner court of Villa Hériot with symmetrical double staircase, colonnaded balustrades and trophy panoplies on the brick walls — Villa Hériot, Giudecca — the inner court with its double staircase. Photo: Luigi De Marchi (2008)

Upward view of the inner court of Villa Hériot with timber-and-glass skylight and panoplies of shields and halberds — Villa Hériot, Giudecca — the inner court, skylight and trophies. Photo: Luigi De Marchi (2008)

Hall of Villa Hériot with monumental hooded fireplace, carved wood panelling and wrought-iron chandelier with green glass lamps — Villa Hériot, Giudecca — hall with monumental fireplace. Photo: Luigi De Marchi (2008)

Reading room inside Villa Hériot with bookshelves, reading table and iron chandelier with green glass lamps — Villa Hériot, Giudecca — the library reading room. Photo: Luigi De Marchi (2008)

Murano glass chandelier silhouetted against a window with circular leaded panes inside Villa Hériot — Villa Hériot, Giudecca — Murano glass chandelier against a leaded window. Photo: Luigi De Marchi (2008)

Single-storey pavilion with continuous glazing and pierced marble panels facing the lagoon in the garden of Villa Hériot — Villa Hériot, Giudecca — garden pavilion facing the lagoon. Photo: Luigi De Marchi (2008)

Exterior view across the lawn of the single-storey lagoon pavilion of Villa Hériot, with the water visible behind it — Villa Hériot, Giudecca — the lagoon pavilion seen from the garden. Photo: Luigi De Marchi (2008)

The smaller of the two villas of the Hériot complex, brick facade with paired arched windows and entrance porch — Villa Hériot, Giudecca — the second, smaller villa of the complex. Photo: Luigi De Marchi (2008)

The smaller second villa of the Hériot complex seen across its garden, brick facade with arched windows — Villa Hériot, Giudecca — the second villa amid the garden. Photo: Luigi De Marchi (2008)

Sources & resources

Wikipedia (IT) — Villa Hériot: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_H%C3%A9riot — current occupants, general history
Fondo Mainella e Carlini (archivio familiare dell’architetto) — Ville Hériot alla Giudecca: https://www.mainella.org/2020/12/26/ville-heriot-giudecca-venezia/ — costruzione 1926–1929, progettisti, passaggi d’uso fino al 1984
IVESER — Le ville Hériot alla Giudecca: https://www.iveser.it/class/le-ville-heriot-alla-giudecca-2025/ — datazione anni ’20, stile architettonico
Official website: https://www.labiennale.org/it/bacheca/405

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