An ancient story
The Delle Quare Vineyards at Villa Angarano Bianchi-Michiel
"This place is renowned for its precious wines and fruits, but even more for the courtesy of its lord"
This famous comment by Andrea Palladio provides a succinct description of the territory while lauding the kindness of his client, Giacomo Angarano, who had engaged the famous architect to redesign the lordly manor and its rural outbuildings in 1548.
The story begins far before the mid-Cinquecento, however: the remains of a country villa from Imperial Roman times (2nd Century AC) most probably dedicated to agriculture, certainly wine olive oil, and cereals have been unearthed nearby.
Other, more ancient remains of paleo-Veneto origin have been found near Castellaro Hill and date back to the Late Bronze Age.
The earliest mention of agricultural activity in the area is made in a document penned during the Middle Ages in the Year 1262, the Regestum possessionum comunis Vincencie, which describes a number of fields planted with grapevines in a location near Villa Angarano now known as Villa Bianchi-Michiel. The Regesto was compiled by the Municipality of Vicenza as a list of the territory's assets following the end of domination by the Ezzelini Family.
Over the centuries, the undivided ownership of the fields in the Delle Quare quarter was gradually broken up until the Angarano Family and its successors finally succeeded through gradual acquisitions in gaining control of a vast property with the villa at its center.
The farm, its vineyards, olive groves, and fields prospered throughout the 19th century, survived the First World War intact, even if it stood not far from the front, and remained unchanged until halfway through the 1900s.
A new road was laid through the Delle Quare quarter during the '60s, leading to the transformation of the urban areas and landscape that we see today.
In recent years, the vineyards have returned to life along the eastern bank of the River Brenta where the twelve and a half rows from the Ezzelini Era once stood to resume the ancient tradition and once again evoke the words: "This place is renowned for its precious wines and fruits, but even more for the courtesy of its lord".