Set against a lush Italian-style garden, the villa known as \u2018Baitella\u2019 owes its name to the noble Baitelli family of Brescia, a family recorded in the Brescian tax registers of 1453 and 1459 and owners of other residences in the area, who eventually came to favour the villa in Castegnato, extending its architecture and adapting it for the administration of the surrounding estates. In 1686, the villa became the property of the Martinengo Cesaresco family, to whom we owe the splendid noble coat of arms restored on the southern fa\u00e7ade. The residence remained in the family\u2019s possession until 1838, when it passed to the Dolfin family of Venice, before undergoing numerous changes of ownership.<\/p>\n
The complex is the result of the combination of a 16th-century core and an 18th-century extension, to which we owe the villa as we see it today: a building of considerable size, laid out along a long longitudinal axis, which served as the manor house. As was often the case with residences intended for the administration of land, this was flanked by outbuildings used for agricultural purposes.<\/p>\n
The fa\u00e7ade of the villa is divided into three sections, with the main section slightly taller and crowned with small obelisks: the surfaces are finished with great elegance, free from frills and ornamentation, but characterised by a double row of windows, to which a third row is added at the central section.<\/p>\n
While the main fa\u00e7ade appears perfectly orderly \u2013 an impeccable architectural backdrop to the garden in front of it \u2013 the opposite side, overlooking the courtyard, appears much more complex and irregular, with a seven-bay portico flanked by the stairwell. The portico\u2019s vaults continued, as it were, into the interior of the building, forming a smaller covered cross-vaulted corridor to allow passage from one end of the building to the other.<\/p>\n
Inside, the main axis was characterised by a succession of enclosed, vaulted rooms overlooking the garden. Some of the rooms still retained their original painted decoration, with lintels adorned with birds and flowers in an oriental style and floral motifs on the walls. The villa also featured an oratory, situated to the east of the main residential wing, dedicated to St Francis and built as a stately chapel, which once housed an altarpiece by Francesco Giugno.<\/p>\n
The villa, which until recently was in a state of disrepair, has recently undergone a meticulous restoration project that has restored the building to its former splendour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":798,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categorie_arte":[435],"comuni":[90],"class_list":["post-4815","arte_e_cultura","type-arte_e_cultura","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categorie_arte-dimore-storiche","comuni-castegnato"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n