Top Historic Sights in Mira, Italy

Explore the historic highlights of Mira

Villa Foscari

Villa Foscari is designed by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio. It is also known as La Malcontenta, a nickname which it received when the spouse of one of the Foscaris was locked up in the house because she allegedly didn't live up to her conjugal duty. The villa was commissioned by the brothers Nicolo and Luigi Foscari, members of a patrician Venetian family that produced Francesco Foscari, one of Venice's most note ...

Founded: 1558-1560 | Location: Mira, Italy

Villa Widmann

The Villa Widmann-Foscari is located at the shores of the river Brenta located in the small town of Mira, between Venice and Padua. The present palace was built in the 18th century; a succession of families including the Scerimann, Donà, Foscari, had previously owned the site. The present villa was apparently designed and built in 1719 by Alessandro Tirali, a Venetian architect. The Widmanns commissioned the int ...

Founded: 1719 | Location: Mira, Italy

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Mr Phil Price

Historic Site of the week

Caerleon Roman Amphitheatre

Built around AD 90 to entertain the legionaries stationed at the fort of Caerleon (Isca), the impressive amphitheatre was the Roman equivalent of today’s multiplex cinema. Wooden benches provided seating for up to 6,000 spectators, who would gather to watch bloodthirsty displays featuring gladiatorial combat and exotic wild animals.

Long after the Romans left, the amphitheatre took on a new life in Arthurian legend. Geoffrey of Monmouth, the somewhat imaginative 12th-century scholar, wrote in his History of the Kings of Britain that Arthur was crowned in Caerleon and that the ruined amphitheatre was actually the remains of King Arthur’s Round Table.

Today it is the most complete Roman amphitheatre in Britain.