Villa dei Vescovi exclusive for our guests!

At our reception you will find entrance tickets at discounted prices, only for our guests!

 

Villa dei Vescovi is open to the public at the following times:

March: Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:00
From April to June: from Wednesday to Saturday, from 10:00 to 18:00; Sunday, 10:00 to 19:00
July and August: Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, 16:00 - 22:00 and Saturdays, 10:00 - 18:00
September and October: Wednesday to Saturday, 10:00 to 18:00; Sunday, 10:00 to 19:00
From November 1st to December 10th: Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Last admission: one hour before closing.

Monday and Tuesday closed to the individual public; extraordinary openings for organized groups or private rentals subject to availability and by reservation.

 

To know more

Harmoniously incorporated into a hilly setting, it stands as a perfect union between Renaissance elegance and Roman classicism.

The splendid Villa dei Vescovi is set in the hamlet of Luvigliano, municipality of Torreglia, and is one of the most charming and elegant villas of the Renaissance around Paduan territory.

The edifice is situated on a hillock, surrounded by a natural amphitheater formed by the mounts Pendice, Pirio and Rina, on one side, and stretching out towards the plain of Torreglia and Abano on the other side.

In ancient times this knoll was called Livianum and deemed to be the place chosen by the Roman historian Livy as his country residence. For this further literary suggestion, the hill, owned by the bishops of Padua since the eleventh century, was designed to accommodate a manorial house: the document certifying this first building dates back to 1474.

In that period, the humanist bishop Jacopo Zeno, demolished and rebuilt the ancient Pieve di San Martino – that flanked the palace - in the same area where the parish church currently stands. 
However, the veritable villa was created in the following century: it was conceived as a holiday home and a meeting place for intellectuals and writers.

The interior of the villa was painted in the years 1542 to 1543 by the Flemish painter (working in Venice) Lambert Sustris. Only a portion of the impressive wall decorations - depicting mythological subjects, rural landscapes and ancient buildings in ruins - was rescued from the heavy tampering of the internal spaces set by Bishop Giustiniani in the 18th century.

During the Second World War, Villa dei Vescovi was used as a place of refuge for displaced people; after the war it hosted spiritual retreats and training activities.

The Paduan curia retained the ownership of the property until 1962, when it was sold to Vittorio and Giuliana Olcese who undertook a first relevant restoration of the interior, even in the sixties. 
In 2005 Villa dei Vescovi was donated to the FAI (Italian Environment Fund) by Maria Teresa Valoti Olcese.

New and decisive works of restoration were started in 2007 and concluded in June 2011 allowing the opening of the monument to the public.

Nowadays the interior of the villa is fitted out with antique furniture and a series of panels illustrate to visitors the various construction stages and the recent recovery of the building.

The surrounding gardens and loggias with portico of the villa offer a relaxing immersion in the beautiful nature of the Euganean Hills, while near the entrance, the rustic buildings house the ticket office, a bookshop and a wine cellar.

Address:

Via dei Vescovi, 4, Luvigliano di Torreglia. 
Tel. +39 049 9930473