Piazza Castello conserves the oldest and most prestigious buildings in the abbey village. Its bell tower, probably erected in the 11th and 12th centuries, and Grimani Tower are the only two of the seven towers built to defend the abbey which have survived. To the right is the Renaissance archway – through which the abbey park is visible – with traces of its lost cloister.

Palazzo del Comune, once the abbot’s residence, was probably built between the end of the 1100s and the beginning of the 1200s. It is a compact building with something of the look of a Villa Veneta and one intriguing theory is that the work was commissioned by Abbot Grimani to the great Andrea Palladio, a good acquaintance of his. In front of it is the Abbey’s Chancery, probably dating to the late 12th and the early 13th centuries. It was the headquarters of the civil institution, which faced the religious one, and the prisons were located here too.