Villa Emo Historical Timeline

Origins

The Emo were a Venetian patrician family who, like many, put capital into mainland farmland in the sixteenth century as maritime trade grew less reliable. Fanzolo was their estate.

Turning points

Around 1559 Palladio designed a building that housed the family, the farm manager, the grain, the carts and the animals in one architectural gesture -- which is the actual Palladian villa type, not the temple-fronted retreat of popular imagination.

Influential people

Giambattista Zelotti frescoed the interior almost completely, with mythological and allegorical cycles across the principal rooms.

Cultural evolution

The villa stayed a working agricultural property, and remained in the hands of the Emo family until 2004 -- an unbroken line of ownership of nearly four and a half centuries.

Present-day significance

It is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list with Palladio's other villas, and is now run as a museum and events venue.