Venetian Art Nouveau

I spent most of my Christmas break this year on the Venetian island of the Lido, where my in-laws live. It's largely a sleepy suburban version of Venice, with mostly 20th century houses and even cars. It does however have some attractions, which I should start to share here!

First of all, the Lido boasts one of the greatest concentrations of art nouveau villas in Italy (called in Italian "Liberty style.") Most chose to emulate the Venetian gothic palaces of the historic center, except with much more flourish.

To celebrate this unique twentieth-century heritage, the City of Venice has recently inaugurated a website dedicated to Liberty architecture on the Lido. So far, it's only in Italian, but a clickable list of the 250+ buildings catalogued with photographs is here.

Here are a couple of my favorites from the first 50... Enjoy!


Villa Lombardi








Villa "La Montagnola"











Casa Licia