The Queen of the Euganean Hills and her Garden of Delights: a trip through centuries of history.
The Catajo Castle is imposing and unique. Built as a military castle by Pio Enea degli Obizzi, a mercenary soldier in 1570, it became first a princely villa and finally an imperial palace when the last descendant of the dynasty left the property as a legacy to Ferdinand of Habsburg. So massive on the outside, but elegantly decorated inside with splendid Renaissance frescoes by G.B. Zelotti which celebrate the magnificence of the noble Obizzi family. Intimate and evocative is the Imperial Chapel, built in neo-Gothic style in 1838 for the visit of the emperors of Austria. the castle with its 350 rooms overlooks the Garden of Earthly Delights, an immense park dotted with bodies of water, statues, citrus fruit collections and ancient and modern rose gardens and also some of the first magnolias imported into Europe from America.
