Villa Fracanzan Piovene

In 1316 Fracanzan family bought land and buildings in Orgiano, the original nucleus of the present present complex.

At the beginning of the eighteen century the Fracanzans, one of the most important aristocratic families in Vicenza, commissioned the architect Francesco Muttoni to design the villa and to elarge the garden and outbuildings. The house became the seat of a famours literaly salon, hosting Elisabetta Caminer Turra, the first female journalist of the time, famous for her Illuminist ideas. In the nineteenth century the property was taken over by Orgians and subsequently inherited by the Piovene family.

The Villa is an important work by Francesco Muttoni (1668-1747) an architect from Lugano. The original projects are in Italian archives and in Washington Congress Library. The monumental baroque structure, rare in the Veneto province, is frequently studied for its decorative elements taken from Palladian tradition. There is an imposing twelve-arched ''barchessa'' with rusticated pilasters beside the villa which links the new building to the fourteenth century courtyard.

The park is one of thje largest landscape park in the Veneto province; a ''serraglio'', or managerie, was created in te eighteenth century to house animals at liberty. A formal garden with box hedging and four monumental yews faces the villa and one side is the ''brolo'' of fruit trees and vegetables enclosed by box. Amongst the woods and cultivated areas are perspective avenues and two fishponds more than 500 mt. long, while woods, fields and marshes offer delightful places to stroll. An amphitheater designed by Muttoni on the hillside was intended for performances using the villa as a backdrop.