Considered "the strangest of the Venetian villas", the Catajo, located in Battaglia Terme (Padua), is no simple castle: over the centuries it has been a villa, a ducal palace and an imperial residence.
Commissioned in 1570 by the Obizzi family of “soldiers of fortune” to use for entertaining, over the centuries it has been an imposing palace and the site of lavish parties. Further expanded in the 19th century to house the court of the Este Archdukes of Modena, it later became the residence of the Habsburg Emperors of Austria.
Walls, corner turrets, a labyrinthine path between courtyards, loggias, and equestrian stairs lead to the piano nobile. Inside, the large frescoed hall is the dominant feature, with a genealogical tree of the Obizzi family, from progenitor Obicio I to the castle’s builder, Pio Enea I. The hall is the starting point for a tour of the apartment designed to host lavish parties. Here, in a luminous triumph of light and colour, one of the most important Renaissance pictorial cycleslauding a family’s exploits is in perfect condition, the work of Gian Battista Zelotti, a favourite painter of the Venetian nobility.
In the castle’s large pleasure garden, a fishpond is surrounded by magnolias and a collection of potted citrus fruits. The garden preserves three of the most important trees in Europe: two gigantic 18th-century magnolias and an imposing sequoia, one of the first specimens imported from America.
The Castle del Catajo is today an unexpected "giant", which demonstrates the stratification of history and art and the families that, over the centuries, have made it one of the most impressive buildings in Italy.
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