Mirano is the park of Venice, with such a flourishing and intriguing nature that a visit becomes almost compulsory. Mirano has always been an attractive place thanks to this gift.
Mirano in fact arises from the most opulent green of all the countryside of the Veneto, so splendid that the Venetian nobility of the 16th-17th centuries chose it as their preferred place of refuge to build their sumptuous residences (thus giving birth to the so-called “villa culture”).
These villas, amounting to 36 in total, are real jewels of architecture and represent today the greatest local attraction to visitors seeking art combined with the soothing rhythms of nature.
Combined with its own intrinsic beauty, its proximity to Venice and an almost equal distance from the destinations of Padua and Treviso, allows for the possibility to alternate the kind of visit. For this reason, Mirano is a perfect place of departure for many excursions. The name of the city refers to its role of military observation post in the time of the Roman Empire, and in fact it displays a magnificent example of a Roman road system: the centuriazione, which was the division of the land by roads crossing at right angles.
The march of history saw the city of Mirano live through alternating fortunes, subjected to various rules, though it experienced its greatest splendour under the Venetian Empire.
Amongst the sources of pride for Mirano, a highly prestigious artistic centre, is surely the 16th-17th century Villa Erizzo surrounded by the Belvedere Gardens, so-called owing to the neo-Gothic tower which arises from the adoption in the 19th century of the style of thick vegetation all’inglese: the combination of natural and artificial elements which conjure up a fairy-tale atmosphere. Thanks also to the altarpiece of Tiepolo’s “Miracle of Saint Anthony Re-attaching the Foot” conserved inside the 17th century Duomo of San Michele, the city of Mirano takes its rightful place on an itinerary for connoisseurs of art.