It was the main residence of the Mantua Benavides family, who moved to Italy, first to Mantua (from which it took the name "Mantua"), then to Padua, where they were engaged in the wool trade. Situated on a hill, the villa was built at the end of the sixteenth century by the heirs of the most illustrious representative of the family, Marco Mantua Benavides (1489-1582), a jurist, scholar, and highly cultured humanist. In the church of the Eremitani in Padua, one can admire the grand mausoleum that he himself had built in 1546 while still alive.
The Mantua Benavides family vacationed in their villa during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which was available for their household and for guests who received generous hospitality there. Bishops visiting the parish found accommodation there, including in 1747 Cardinal Rezzonico (later Pope Clement XIII) and Bishop Giustiniani, who, after the Mantua family died out in 1762, rented the villa as a rectory. From then on, the fate of the villa became forever linked to the parish.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the villa was purchased by the Municipality of Baone but unfortunately fell into rapid decline. In 1964, urgent restoration work began on the Noble Floor, giving the villa a bit of the luster it had lost over time and neglect. In 1994, the complete restoration began, which was completed in 1996.
