The villa was built between 1680 and 1710 by the noble Venetian family Bragadin, one of 24 noble families who established Venice. At the beginning of the 19th century, the villa changed various properties and in 1893 it passed to Count Giovanni Ninni, Noble Venetian native of Thessaloniki in Greece. Ninni family in 1837 had already bought the nearby monastery of Madonna del Pero and many surrounding land, so as to create one of the largest estates in the area.
During the First World War the house was abandoned and occupied by military troops and the “American Red Cross”. In 1918 together with the American Red Cross came a young officer named Ernest Hemingway that on the night of 8 July, seriously injured, nearly died and was baptized in the old schools of Monastier. The intense and tragic events inspired the great writer two famous novels such as “Farewell to Arms” and “Beyond the river, under the trees.” A beautiful exhibition, today set up inside the villa, tells these stories in detail.
In 1932 Dr. Guido Prosdocimus obtained by the Counts Ninni the villa rental and turned it into a hospital. This doctor devised therapies that made him famous, so much so that he founded a large hospital in Libya and his work was required by the various rulers of North Africa.
In 1970 Dr. Antonio Calvani, founder of the group Sogedin, bought the villa where he had already started to work as a surgeon. Under his leadership, in 1972 the nursing home was moved to a new property while the villa, after careful restoration, it was transformed into a luxury hotel.
