Villa dei Leoni, overlooking the Brenta Canal in Mira, was built in 1558 on the commission of Francesco Contarini, procurator of San Marco. The complex included, in addition to the Villa, the barchessa, now used as a theater, the oratory and a large garden.
In 1745, the 16th-century building was then owned by the Pisani family, and Giambattista Tiepolo was commissioned to paint a cycle of frescoes to embellish the villa's entrance hall. Giambattista, together with his quadraturist Gerolamo Mengozzi Colonna, a specialist in the design and execution of illusionistic framing of scenes, masterfully painted a subject that was both historical and celebratory: the visit in the villa of Henry III of Valois, in 1574, on his return journey from Poland, where his mother Catherine de' Medici had imposed him on the throne just five months earlier, to France, to assume the French crown as successor to his brother Charles IX, who had died prematurely. Unfortunately, Tiepolo's cycle of frescoes, sold to French collectors Edouard André and Nélie Jacquemart, was snatched up and transported to Paris in 1893. But today, exceptionally, thanks to the work of the municipal administration, the splendid cycle of Tiepolo frescoes, returned to the villa in 2018, can once again be admired. Thanks to an agreement between the municipal administration, the Institut de France and the Jacquemart-André Museum in Paris, and with the permission of the Superintendence, the frescoes have reappeared using a technique based on digital image transfer onto a material surface, a patent of a Paduan company.
In the villa, a reminder of the splendor of the 1700s are the door frames and the Venetian-style floor; also notable is a 16th-century washbasin of red Verona marble on the upper floors. The Villa, with its walls once again adorned with frescoes, can now be visited by appointment.
The Municipality of Mira has entrusted ARtGlass s.r.l. of Monza with the creation of an Augmented Reality tour to discover the Villa, in which visitors will learn about the history and environment of the municipal area, the first landlord, Federigo Contarini, who had the Villa built in 1557 as his home. The highlight of the visit is the Augmented Reality pictorial analysis of the copy of Giambattista Tiepolo's great fresco.
