Stone remembers. The restoration of Villa Priuli-Crisanti: a blend of memory, landscape and Venetian identity

Stone remembers the hands that shaped it, the seasons that weathered it, the restorers who cared for it. It also remembers the decisions that were made in its presence, whether decisive or hesitant, wise or misguided. In Vicenza’s Val Liona, where the Berici Hills shape a landscape that is more interior than geographical, Villa Priuli Crisanti was waiting for someone to choose patience and knowledge over efficiency and intervention. The complex, also known as Ca’ Priuli, acquired its distinctive character in the late 16th century, built on the remains of an ancient fort. The work is traditionally attributed to Vincenzo Scamozzi, a pupil of Palladio. We are at the height of Veneto’s villa-building era, when architecture was the vehicle of a worldview. Of interest here, however, is the silent, centuries-long transformation that turned a fortified structure into a country villa.

ed structure into a country villa.The layout is organised across three terraces enclosed by walls, with the main building preceded by an Italian style garden. The facade, with its tetrastyle pronaos, has the measured monumentality of Veneto’s finest tradition: it does not overwhelm, but invites. The piano nobile is organised around a central hall with side rooms branching out symmetrically, with their lion-scroll fireplaces, wood-beam ceilings and grotesque decorative friezes. Every element is a signature, every detail a story.

This is the complexity the restoration faced: a layered structure where every era has left its mark, and where the restoration could only be a form of conscious layering.

The project, coordinated by Romina Raulli (architect) and Domenica Mimma Raulli (engineer), was preceded by a fact-finding process. At a time when conservation risks becoming museumification, the approach took a different path – that of compatibility, reversibility and moderation. On the piano nobile, the new restrooms have been installed with minimal disruption; the cement tiles have been replaced with a continuous Venetian terrazzo floor; the window and door frames have been hand-restored with additions in compatible woods. Utility systems are housed in removable plasterboard false walls approved by the heritage office. Every choice is the result of a balance between contemporary living and conservation. The wooden ceilings have been cleaned and treated conservatively, restoring the structure’s clarity without altering its original character.

After removing incongruous 20th-century decorations from the walls, the original friezes were restored through cleaning and integration based on surviving historical traces. As art critic Cesare Brandi wrote, “Restoration is not a creative act; it is a critical act.” The restoration of the outdoor spaces – the courtyard and Italian garden – adopted the same principle, revealing traces of the original layout and preserving the relationship between architecture, terraces and landscape.

In the dialogue between built and unbuilt, the Veneto villa finds its full meaning. As a whole, Villa Priuli Crisanti’s restoration recovers the coherence of a property of significant historical and architectural value, reinforcing its identity as a Veneto villa in the rural landscape. 

Moreover, it shows that the conservation of built heritage, functional restoration and respect for the environmental context are not conflicting objectives, but different aspects of the same design acuity – that of Andrea Crisanti, a world-renowned epidemiologist who has chosen to give back part of his success to history.