The patron saint of Mira is Saint Nicholas, celebrated on 6 December. The urban area, halfway between Padua and Venice, belongs to the Riviera del Brenta, which stretches along the Brenta Canal: the settlement developed during the Middle Ages on the left bank of the canal, becoming a lively river port at the junction with the Taglio Nuovo and Taglio Novissimo canals.
The municipal territory is particularly known for its many Venetian villas built by the Venetian nobility between the 16th and 18th centuries: the Istituto Regionale Ville Venete, whose operational headquarters is in Mira, lists 92 fine buildings, often accompanied by small oratories, palaces, isolated barchesse and casini built between the 15th and 19th centuries, mostly lined up along the Brenta Canal and partly open to visitors by appointment. Among the most famous are the Palladian villa known as «la Malcontenta», in the hamlet of the same name, and Villa Widmann Foscari, together with the barchesse of Villa Valmarana at Mira Porte.
