Villa Ca' Zenobio

Villa Ca' Zenobio, Biscaro, Alverà is a Venetian villa located in Santa Bona (Treviso).

The villa appears in forms similar to the present ones already in a map of 1680, where the complex is reported as "casin e caseta et church for its use" owned by Don Domenico Biscaro, a member of a large local family. In 1714 the same plant is represented («Palazzo orto, church and garden») but the owner is the Venetian Stefano Morellato.

Subsequent pastoral visits by the bishop of Treviso testify how the complex was then passed to Costantin Franceschi and the Battistiol Torni family, also owner of the current villa Torni in Mogliano Veneto.

In 1744 the villa was bought by Sebastiano Uccelli, a wealthy employee of the Procuratoria of San Marco de citra. He was responsible for an important restructuring of the complex which also saw a revision of the decorative apparatus with the addition of statues and frescoes. During the works the barchessa was built (incorporating a pre-existing building) and the private oratory was rebuilt.

The name by which the building is commonly known is linked to the subsequent owner, Count Verità Zenobio who kept it from 1779 to the 1780s, and then left it to his family. During this period, the poetess Angela Veronese, daughter of the Zenobio gardener, spent her childhood in the annexes.

In the nineteenth century, the Advances and, from 1873, Pacifico Ceresa, took turns. On his death in 1905, the complex was inherited by his daughter Elisabetta Ceresa in Alverà (hence the other denomination of Ca 'Alverà).

In 1949 the Alverà family sold the complex to Giuseppe Cavallin, known for having parceled out the annexed estate and also part of the park, by selling the trunks of the centuries-old trees to a sawmill; the boundary wall was knocked down for two thirds of its length and the wrought iron gates, also mentioned by Coletti, were sold.

One was recovered from a scrap metal warehouse and is now in the deposits of the Treviso Civic Museums.

In 1951 it was bought by the engineer Ceccotto and in 1960 by Marcella Caccianiga in Del Pra 'and her children.

The last transfer of ownership took place at the end of the 1990s with the transfer to the Cassamarca foundation which in 2002 completed a radical restoration. Until 2012 it hosted a theatrical and musical advanced school managed by the company Teatri SpA.

For the summer of 2021, from Monday 21 June, starting at 3 pm, the historic villa will be reopened to the public, who will be able to visit the centuries-old park and the magnificent music room.

Cassamarca Foundation opens its doors to an area of ??1.2 hectares devoted above all to children, with a library dedicated to children's literature, a playroom, a music room. The project is to create a Treviso sports museum.

The archive of the municipal theater will be transferred and it has also become the seat of the International Museum of Emerging Academic Artists.

Map: Villa Ca' Zenobio