Villa Rodella: the most important asset confiscated in Veneto, now is abandoned.
4 min read
Villa Pasqualigo-Pasinetti-Rodellana was built in 1500 in Cinto Euganeo (Padua). Belonged to several Venetian lords (as many as its names) it is better known as Villa Rodella. In 2005 it became the property of the former Governor of the Veneto Region and former Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Culture, investigated in the investigation into the Mose scandal for corruption.
According to the Judiciary, the bribes that he would have accepted for the realization of the project have been invested in the restructuring of the Villa.
This is the main reason why his lawyers have bargained and, in addition to having obtained house arrest for two years and ten months, the confiscation for equivalent of Villa Rodella has been defined from which auction the State should have get the 2 million and 600 thousand euros that the ex-governor must give.
So, a 2.6 million euro Villa, confiscated for the Mose case, now in a state of neglect.
Violated by thieves, accessible to anyone, immersed in a large completely uncultivated park, this Villa is now in a pitiful state: a disastrous budget, almost five years after the Mose scandal, and three and a half years after that the former president of the regional council decided to abandon his residence and accepted its confiscation to pay part of his debts with the justice. This is the sad story of Villa Rodella, a Villa of great historical and artistic value, located in the splendid Italian setting of the Euganean hills. The degradation of the huge building is documented by my photographs inside and outside, and access is easy. In the park there are numerous points where the fence is uprooted, and even if the shutters are closed, on the back there is a gaping door, which someone forced a couple of years ago, when the thieves entered it. No one obviously repaired it.
For the politician, the villa has become the currency of exchange with the State to be able to negotiate a sentence of two years and ten months of imprisonment.
Everything is at a standstill like in 2015, the year in which the moving took place. In 2015, in fact, after the house arrest, the politician leaves his beloved Villa Rodella, who passes into the hands of the State, to move to an apartment of his own property not far away.
At a time when the politician reigned over Veneto (he was elected governor for three terms from 1995 to 2010, before becoming a minister), memorable parties were held here, with the once Prime Minister arriving by helicopter and the quintessence of the political and economic power of the region that gathered around the tables set in the garden. All to pay homage to the president who after a few years, when he was arrested for the Mose scandal, ended up under house arrest right here.
The mayor of Cinto Euganeo, the municipality where the villa is located, had thought of some ideas for its reuse, even though the secretary of the municipality later dissuaded him, given the situation of constraints and mortgages.
In fact, a mortgage of Veneto Banca has been registered on Villa Rodella, to guarantee a loan of over one million euros granted to the politician for its restructuring.
Then the mortgage had been canceled, but it seems it was an abnormal procedure, and therefore Veneto Banca (acquired by Banca Intesa after the financial crash) would still be entitled to the title. Therefore, at the time it was sold, part of the income would go to the credit institution.
The politician, in one of the last appearances in the Court had declared that he had a million dollar liquidation and he didn’t need any money. His last tax return was 461 million lire, and it was 1993. Then he took a billion lire in liquidation, and It was clear that he could afford Villa Rodella and even renovate it.
When he left, the technicians of the State of government-owned had discovered that he had also taken away the radiators and the sanitary ware. And so, to avoid new problems, he hastened to restore the state of the places.
This often happens in these cases, as it depreciates the value of the property in addition to making it unusable to third parties.
