The Portico
The Portico, with its eight columns of imposing proportions to allow carriage access, is of typical Palladian style.
The walls are adorned with Roman artifacts and friezes from the tomb of the Barbarigo Doges, attributed to Tullio Lombardo (1488), including the coat of arms with the doge’s corno. The funerary monument (below in green), considered one of the masterpieces of 15th-century funerary art, was originally located in the Church of Santa Maria della Carità in Venice, which was demolished by Napoleon to enlarge the Academy Museum.
The Portico was chosen in 1904 by American painter Maxwell Parish (1870–1966) to illustrate Villa Valmarana in Edith Wharton’s book Italian Villas and Their Gardens.
The Stables
The Stables of the Villa is a magnificent space with pink marble columns that once housed the ponies (short but tall) for the Villa’s carriages.
When Giustino’s family moved into the Foresteria (in 1921), it became the tea room of Countess Amalia, his wife. Later, it became the studio of Carlo Scarpa (who lived upstairs) in the years before his death in 1978.
