Guide of Rovigo, Italy

Rovigo, Italy

The town of Rovigo is rich in history and culture. Its most famous culture institution is the Concordi Academy, which is also one of the most important galleries in Veneto. This Accademy, risen in 1580, began to devote itself to painting at about the half of the 18th Century ordering to the most important Venetian painters an extraordianly series of portraits representing famous people living in Rovigo and Venetian patrons. Count Giovanni Frascesco Casilini becomes a real Venetian art-collector of the 15th and 16th century; he puts together in his palace almost two hundred works and later he decides to leave a legacy of those to the Concordi Academy.

The picture gallery boasts more than 450 works prevalently of Venetian art from the 15th to the 18th Century, some of these are real masterpieces known all over the world. Scholars consider it one of the most important art-gallery in Veneto.

Like all Veneto, the Rovigo's Province is rich in Patrician Villas. The artistic phenomenon of the Polesine Villas was closely linked to the expansion on the mainland of the Venetian dominion. The Villas were commissioned precisely by Venetian patricians.

For reason of a historical and enviromental nature, there are no early Renaissance Villas; the oldest among them consequently date back to the 16th Century (Nani Mocenigo at Canda, Schiat at Ficarolo, Badoer and Grimani at Fratta Polesine, Dofin at Lendinara, etc.). More numerous and of remarkable quality are the group of the 17th century Villas (Grassi at Baricetta, Pellegrini at Salvaterra, Roveri at Calto, Oroboni at Fratta Polesine, etc.) and those of the 18th Century (Bellettato, Dava, Dolfin at Fratta Polesine, Menotti at Lama di Gavello, Tiepolo at Albarella, etc.).

Part of the Contents and the Photos are courtesy of Regione Veneto, Assessorato al Turismo; APT di Rovigo