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Veneto
Province of Padua
Battaglia Terme
Things to Do in Battaglia Terme
Castello del Catajo
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Castello del Catajo

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Castello del Catajo
4.5
#1 of 18 things to do in Battaglia Terme
CastlesArt Museums
Tuesday
3:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Thursday
3:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM - 7:00 PM
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About
During the visits inside the castle you will be toured by official guide who will explain and illustrates to you peculiarities of the complex.At the end of the tour you can have a nice walk in the park where we can see fish-ponds and several centuries-old sequoias and magnolias, which were the first ones to be imported to Europe from the newly discovered America.Moreover the six function rooms can hold prestigious events and cater for important guest at high standard level, as it befits a noble mansion.We can accommodate up to 350 seats for banquets at noble floor.Durante la visite all'interno del castello sarai guidato dai nostri accompagnatori che ti spiegheranno e illustreranno le peculiarita del complesso.Alla fine della visita potrai passeggiare nel giardino, abbellito da una piccola peschiera e da secolari magnolie e sequoie, tra le prime importate in Europa dalla recentemente scoperta America.Inoltre le 6 stanze affrescate possono ospitare prestigiosi eventi e cene ad alto livello, grazie ai pregi di una nobile dimora.Possiamo accomodare fino a 350 persone per banchetti nel piano nobile.
Duration: 1-2 hours
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Detailed Reviews: Reviews order informed by descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as cleanliness, atmosphere, general tips and location information.
4.5
657 reviews
Excellent
379
Very good
222
Average
33
Poor
13
Terrible
10
izif_37
Ljubljana, Slovenia3,094 contributions
Unique experience
Jun 2018 • Solo
The castle - Vila is huge and really something special! Actualy it was built as vila, but the owners liked an idea of having castle, so they built up walls, but they are not really meant for serious defence. The history about family is interesting and can be seen like a cartoon on beautiful frescoes. The castle once had 350 rooms, but ir was left in bad shape and the new owners are working hard to renovate it step by step. So by visiting it we also support that! Dont forget to visit the lovely garden as well!
Written June 15, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
quantockm
Taunton, UK316 contributions
Excellent guide and fabulous frescos
Oct 2017 • Couples
Unlike some other visitors experience we had a really excellent guide who spoke in both italian and english. The tour was unhurried with plenty of time to view the fantastically fresh frescos which tell the family history ( both real and untrue!) Worth every
euro.
Written October 20, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
MarilynSouthsea
Southsea68 contributions
Wonderful frescoes
May 2017 • Couples
This is a very interesting place to visit. This castle has beautiful and very well preserved frescoes that are not to be missed. The park is also delightful to walk in.
This attraction has not been open that long and lessons are still being learned. We had a very good guide who did the tour in Italian and English but please note that at the weekend tours are only in Italian. Hopefully this will change in the future. No photos are allowed inside the castle so I really would have liked to have been able to buy some postcards of the frescoes but none were available. There are some merchandising
opportunities that need to be capitalised on. This castle needs all the money it can get to continue with restoration work.
Do wear sensible footwear - external staircases were designed for horses amd can be a bit tricky especially for someone with mobility problems.
The castle setting is lovely next to the canal and we were only too pleased to walk along the towpath on the way back to the station.
Written May 18, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
SilverSnail
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK179 contributions
Fantastic castle, poor organisation for tourists
Jun 2016 • Couples
This wonderful castle has a new owner, and in part I'm writing this review in the hope that they will use this opportunity to reconsider their tourist facilities.
We arrived on a sunny Sunday afternoon and were told to visit the gardens until our allocated guided tour (only in Italian) at 4.30. The gardens have been much improved, and it was a pleasure to spend our first half hour there.
Unfortunately, our group must have comprised 50 or more people, and the guide, an enthusiastic girl, gave so much information that it took half an hour of introduction before we even entered the castle. The frescos are fantastic, but we didn't need such detailed descriptions. It would have sufficed to have a caption beneath each one. The problem was that we were shut in each room, in great heat, so that other tours were not disturbed, and there was nowhere to sit down, and no air. Given that most of our group were middle aged or older, it became very difficult for some to stand, especially when they could not understand a word of the guided tour. In fact, after the 4th room, all the foreign visitors, and some Italians, left.
A further point is that there were no signs for toilets. Perhaps there weren't any!
I think the organisers could learn a lot from the National Trust. A person in each room (a volunteer) equipped with information would make the experience far more pleasant.
If you understand Italian, this castle is unmissable on any itinerary.
Written June 14, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
J L
New York63 contributions
So so at best
Sep 2018 • Couples
A pile of a buildings with no real core. Additions done with little thought for the whole. The frescos are very fresh and numerous but show very average artistic merit. Lots of visitors run through this castle despite its lack of substance or design. The garden is not particularly well maintained or interestingly laid out.
Written September 25, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
marco m
Dear visitor, the Catajo castle is one of the most fascinating buildings in Italy for its historical stratification. Different eras and different owners have been able to add new areas with the ability to always integrate them with the previous ones and with the surrounding landscape, with a result of bundled harmony. Its architecture has been conceived as a large open-air theater made of terraces and courtyards for theatrical performances and where the surrounding nature is a marvelous scenography, something very different from "A pile of buildings with no real core. Additions done with little thought for the whole ". The perfectly preserved frescoes inside are 500 years old and are the work of Giovanni Battista Zelotti, one of the most important exponents of the Venetian Renaissance. The cycle of frescoes in Catajo Castle is unique in its genre because it represents a first case in the Venetian Renaissance art history, it is in fact the first cycle of self-celebrating frescoes, thus representing a case for the history of art. Its importance is - among other things - well described in a beautiful book just released in your city, New York, by Irma B. Jaffe "Zelotti 'epic frescoes at Cataio" which describes its importance at best. The castle has indeed many visitors, most of them can fortunately understand these immense values perfectly.
Written October 1, 2018
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Blossom S
Arzignano, Italy734 contributions
Rushing
Jul 2017 • Couples
The place are huge but only few room available to visit for €9 is little bit expensive for what you get. Everything is close you have to waiting the guide open for you, and after that she close again let another group coming and would be nice put information every room on every picture and direction to go, instead have guide. keep you on rushing can't enjoy at all. No guide English speaker but they have the guide book in English but not so detail.
Written July 31, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
AndreaDFC
Dear Blossom, We are very sorry that your experience hasn’t been positive. Catajo Castle is not a public museum but a private property. We are obliged by law to provide guided tours, it is a way for us for guaranteeing people’s safety within the Castle, given the huge dimensions of the building, and a way to ensure the preservation of the frescoes. We provide bilingual tours (usually Italian and English) during the week (on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons) only on Sunday we provide visits in Italian only (given the fact that on Sundays 99% of the visitors is Italian). When the tour is provided in Italian only, we provide our visitors with a booklet in their language, so they can follow the tour. At the moment, as you remarked, only a few rooms can be seen, but the tour does not only consist in that: the tour is an itinerary of about 1 hour and 10 minutes, that includes the frescoed halls of the Noble Floor, two terraces with panoramic view of the Euganean Hills, corridors hollowed out in the rock of the mountain, and a monumental park of 14000 m2 that visitors can see on their own. Best regards, The Catajo Castle Management
Written August 5, 2017
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Footprints450089
3 contributions
Very nice but No-go for nonItalian
Mar 2017 • Friends
Nice, but very bad information for tourist. The guides are very morivated, but for non Italian it's an absolute no-go
Written March 12, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
CD
UK120 contributions
The biggest advertising hording ever
Sep 2014 • Couples
This castle has a long and interesting history with a small garden and park area. The tour of the castle rooms is guided and limited to the staterooms used by the family for entertaining. The fascinating thing here is that the family were mercenaries in a time when there was a good living in such. There exploits ranged from Malta to England and there CV or resume is written on the stateroom walls in the form of frescos demonstrating there sometimes bloody successes in war. The rooms were a 16th century marketing campaign for their services. Whilst much of the castle is not on show the bits you can see are fascinating to the life of a rich mercenary family. The tour is guided and on our tour given in Italian and English the tour guide had excellent English and went out her way to make sure that we understood the content. Just note that there are no refreshments here and the gates only open at the precise opening time, so don't go early as we did thinking you could while away quarter of an hour in the car park.
Written September 26, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
AndreaDFC
Thank you very much for visiting the castle, for your review and for your tips!
Written October 24, 2015
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Rob_H_000
Munich, Germany59 contributions
Magnificent location, magnificent frescos, poorly presented
Jul 2013 • Family
This could be an absolute gem of a visit. A wonderful palace castle nestling in the Eugenean Hills with superb frescos. Instead a tour group is rushed around inside with a garralous Italian-speaking guide giving little time to admire or study the frescos. Non-Italian speakers are presented with a booklet which, whilst informative, is difficult to follow. Once you have finally worked out in which room the group is - and can then read the relevant text - the guide is rushing the group to the next room.
Written July 8, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
AndreaDFC
We are very happy that you admired the magnificence of this castle and we thank you. Our guides speaks all English and some of them also French and German. We can offer tours in foreign language by appointment, for groups. During normal opening time we have to offer the visit in the official language and we have to adjust the duration of the visit to the different needs of different types of visitors. 1 hour is the best compromise. P.S. I do not think you can define our guide "garrulous" (which has a negative connotation) only because you do not undestand Italian language.
Written March 24, 2014
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Anthony H
Krailling, Germany337 contributions
Interesting castle with a lot of history and symbolism
Jun 2018 • Business
We received a private tour as part of the social program.at a meeting. The castle and grounds are quite beautiful and they are in the process of creating it to its former grandeur. The rooms which are finished contain beautiful frescoes, each telling a story of the powerful family that owned the castle. They were invoked with the kings in England as well as the Medici family and Venice. There is often a mixture of styles and symbolism. Our guide had a very heavy Italian accent, which actually added to the experience.
Written August 23, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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