VILLA DOTTORI, SETTE GNOATO, ZINI,

detta “PALAZZO ROSSO”

Palazzo Rosso, as we know it today, has its roots in the second half of the seventeenth century. It was likely built around 1680: just a few years later, in fact, the Dottori family decided to embellish it with a private oratory dedicated to Saint Mary Elizabeth, hidden in the silence of the inner courtyard.

The first owner we know of was the nobleman from Padua, Lionello Dottori. From him, the residence passed into the hands of his son and then his grandson, following the natural flow of generations. The fate of the palace changed when Giorgio Emo Capodilista, also a nobleman from Padua, acquired it as part of the dowry of his wife, Countess Caterina Anna Dottori. A family gift, so to speak, to seal an important union.

In 1828, however, a new chapter began: Giorgio sold the palace and the surrounding land to Pietro Gnoato, a man who, as the epitaph engraved on the main façade recalls, managed—with commitment, perseverance, and honesty—to build his wealth almost from nothing.
It was his adopted grandson, Sette Gnoato, who dedicated that long and affectionate inscription to him, a memory of a deep bond and an inheritance that was not only material.

By the mid-nineteenth century, Palazzo Rosso was considered both a country residence and a center of agricultural life. In 1872 it passed to Luigi Camerini, and a few years later it was officially registered as an elegant three-story building with eighteen rooms, which eventually became thirty-two. Upon Camerini’s death, the house remained with his wife and son, continuing its journey through the families of the area.

The twentieth century brought new transitions: first to the “Società Anonima Credito Italiano,” then, in 1935, to the Mioni family. After several inheritances and a will that did not clearly assign its parts, the palace was finally left, in 1959, to four heirs from the Mioni and Tiraboschi families.

In the last few decades, the farm has been managed by the Zini family, who, in addition to cultivating the land, created a beautiful agriturismo in 2006 in one of the wings of the Barchessa.

The Bisatto Canal
Behind Palazzo Rosso still flows the Bisatto canal, an ancient waterway dug in 1143 to divert part of the Bacchiglione River. Once, it served as a small trade route: boats glided slowly by, unloading goods and carrying fish toward the fish markets built along its banks.
It is therefore no surprise that at the back of the villa one finds an old landing place—a point of arrival for those who came by water, perhaps noble visitors from Padua, or those who brought goods and supplies to the house.