The construction of Villa Pisani is due to the Pisani di Santo Stefano family, an ancient Venetian aristocratic family, who wanted the villa built, together with the majestic park, during the 1700s. The design was by Frigimelica, but its realization was entrusted to Francesco Maria Preti, who reset everything on clear Palladian inspiration. The villa was meant to be a manifesto of the power of the Pisani family, on the occasion of Alvise Pisani's election to the dogeship in 1735. The majestic villa has hosted doges, kings and emperors and today is a national museum that preserves furnishings and works of art from the 18th and 19th centuries.
The main floor, consisting of thirty rooms, preserves frescoes, paintings and original furnishings. Great opulence is achieved in the ballroom, where Giambattista Tiepolo, the greatest exponent of 18th-century painting in Italy, frescoed "Glory of the Pisani Family" on the ceiling.
The park occupies an entire bend of the Brenta Naviglio, covering 11 hectares. In the 18th century the spectacular view was enhanced by broderies with large colossal statues on either side. The organization of the park by long perspectives recalls the Palace of Versailles and it blends with the Venetian tradition of the walled garden, open by means of portals and windows that prolong views of the Brenta Riviera. The Austrian nineteenth century would be characterized, however, by the great attention devoted to botany with tropical greenhouses and the inclusion of large tree specimens, before the 1900s revival introduced long boxwood hedges and the large parterre water tank.
