Villa Colonnati

Villa Colonnati is a Renascentia suburban villa in the Lungosala dei Colonnati, in the district of Lungosala in Romula, Istalia.

Description
The villa was built for Antonino Colonnati, a rich Romulan prince which family traditionally detained the role of treasurer of Patriarcate. Between 1526–1531, the renowed paduan architect Pietro della Nave designed and erected the villa. The novelty of this suburban villa design can be discerned from its differences from that of a typical urban palace. Istalian renascentia palaces typically faced onto a street and were decorated versions of defensive castles: rectangular blocks with rusticated ground floors and enclosing a courtyard. This villa, intended to be an airy summer pavilion, presented a side towards the street and was given a U shaped plan with a five bay loggia between the arms.

Prince Colonnati also commissioned the fresco decoration of the villa which once covered all the internal spaces and became renowed for their beauty. If in many spaces the ancient frescos have been preserved, later internal redecoration works shaped part of the interiors in neoclassical style, like the Selucian Hall. The subject of the frescos came from the ancient classical mythology, like the one in the loggia, or are masterly trompe-l'œil, like the one in the Panorama Hall.

The Villa remained in the hand of Colonnati family until 1785 when it was purchaised by the Patriarchate which used the building to house a religious order of cloistered nuns; at this time date back the walls and the little arched gate. In 1917 the Grand Emirate's authorities seized the building as headquarter of a statistic bureau which remained in place also under the following Emirate of Quanzar and Union of Quanzari Soviets. Under the Istalian Republics the villa housed the National Institute for Agricultural Survey and Recordings until it was suppressed by the Fifth Republic.

In 4600 the Municipality of Romula offered the Villa as city residence of the Imperial Grand Prince of the Crown, heir of the Istalian Empire.