Villa Contarini Giovanelli-Venier is located in the center of the village of Vò Vecchio, the ancient municipal seat that later became a fraction of the municipality of Vo'. Indeed, during the 17th century, an oratory, an inn, and a square were added to the palace, which, along with the river port, led to the development of a small settlement.
The villa stands at a privileged border crossing that has represented a sort of passage between the Berici Hills and the Euganean Hills since the Middle Ages. These lands, reclaimed from the swamps thanks to extensive drainage works promoted by the Republic of Venice, have been owned by the Contarini family, a powerful and wealthy Venetian family, since the 1400s.
The construction of the villa dates back to the end of the 16th century, with modifications and expansions carried out in the subsequent centuries. In its original design, the central body of the villa resembled the image of a Venetian palace; indeed, the building has a square tripartite plan with overlapping central halls. In the 19th century, the property passed to the Giovanelli-Venier family, who undertook significant renovation and modernization work, shifting the orientation of the main façade from the side facing the square to the southern side, opposite the barchesse. The interiors also underwent a radical rearrangement, and the beautiful half-spiral staircase was constructed, which still connects the various floors of the building today.
The outdoor space has remained organized according to the original Baroque layout: the double-ramped staircase opens semicircularly towards the courtyard, where the two imposing lateral barchesse, arranged divergently, along with the rounded walled enclosure at the end of the garden, create a curious "drop" shape.
Since 1927, the villa has changed ownership several times, and during World War II, it was requisitioned and used by the Nazis as a concentration camp for Jews from the provinces of Padua and Rovigo. Between late 1943 and July 1944, around sixty people—men, women, children, often entire families—were confined within its walls, and after several months of imprisonment, they met the tragic fate of millions of other Jews exterminated in the camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland.
In the 1950s, the villa was purchased by the Municipality of Vò, which converted it into housing for its employees and elementary school teachers. One of the two barchesse was used for many years as the location of the elementary school, while the other barchessa, which remains privately owned, still hosts a bar-restaurant today.
In 2012, an important restoration project was completed, bringing Villa Contarini Giovanelli-Venier back to its former glory. Currently, the internal halls host an interesting museum path: the noble floor features the Landscape Museum with a rich exhibition of copies of ancient maps of the territory, the second floor is dedicated to temporary exhibitions, while the ground floor has become the Museum of the Shoah (or Place of Memory of the Shoah), featuring the remains of the kitchens used by the inmates and panels that describe the drama they endured.
