Tag: Venetian-Gothic in Venice

Palazzo Pisani Gritti is a Gothic palace in Venice, located in the San Marco district (sestiere), overlooking the Grand Canal between Palazzo Ferro Fini and Campiello Traghetto.   SHORT HISTORY OF PALAZZO PISANI GRITTI Palazzo Pisani Gritti was built in the 14th century. In 1475, it was redesigned in Venetian-Gothic style for the Pisani family. In 1525, the palace became the private residence of the Doge of Venice, Andrea Gritti. The palace was owned for a long period of time by the Gritti family, and later became the residence of the Vatican ambassadors to Venice. In the 19th century, it became the property of the Baroness Susanna d’Eyb, widow of the Baron Wetzlar. During this period, John Ruskin and his young wife Ettie spent a long period in the palace, where he wrote his famous book The Stones of Venice. At the beginning of the 20th century, after a meticulous renovation, Palazzo Pisani Gritti was turned into a hotel.   ARCHITECTURE OF PALAZZO PISANI GRITTI Palazzo Pisani Gritti has four floors, with a very low ground floor and three noble floors, all in Gothic style. The two central floors have four single-light windows and one elegant pentafora (five-light window) in Read more [...]

Palazzo Pisani Moretta is a Gothic palace in Venice, located in the San Polo district (sestiere), overlooking the Grand Canal between Palazzo Barbarigo della Terrazza and Palazzo Tiepolo.   SHORT HISTORY OF PALAZZO PISANI MORETTA Palazzo Pisani Moretta was built in the second half of the 15th century by the Bembo family. In 1629, the palace became the residence of a branch of the noble Pisani family, the Pisani Morettas, whose name derives from the mispronunciation of Almorò Pisani, founder of the family. Later, the palace was owned by Francesco Pisani Moretta, the last male descendant of the family. In 1737, the building passed to the daughter of Francesco, Chiara, who married a member of the Pisani dal Banco family. Chiara restructured the building by demolishing the external staircase and replacing it with the grand staircase by Andrea Tirali, and had the internal rooms frescoed by the most popular painters of her era. Chiara’s son, Vettor, secretly married the bourgeois Teresa Dalla Vedova and had a son with her, named Pietro, not recognized by his father. Vettor also had a second wife and a second daughter, who married Filippo Barbarigo. As the two lived in adjacent residences, the palaces were Read more [...]

Palazzo Bembo is a Venetian-Gothic palace in Venice, overlooking the Grand Canal, located in the San Marco district (sestiere), not far from the Rialto Bridge, next to Palazzo Dolfin Manin.   SHORT HISTORY Palazzo Bembo was built in the 15th century by the Bembo family, by merging several Byzantine style buildings dating back to the 11th century. Over the centuries, the interior of the palace was remodeled several times, but it maintained its original external structure, except for the shape of the attic. Today, the palace houses the hotel Palazzo Bembo – Exclusive Accommodation and it is also an exhibition space of contemporary art.   ARCHITECTURE The facade of Palazzo Bembo has a clear Venetian-Gothic appearance, with its three levels of lancet windows. The polifora on the third floor, with the beautiful balustrade, stands out. The floors are separated by stone bas-relief frames. Inside, there is a 17th-century staircase overlooking the internal courtyard that leads to the main floor, where we can find decorations in Baroque style dating back to the same century.   HOW TO GET THERE The closest vaporetto stop is Rialto, located about 50 meters away, on the waterbus Lines 1 and 2. To find the palace Read more [...]

The Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari is one of the largest churches in Venice, and one of Italy’s most important Franciscan sites. The church, commonly known as the Frari, is located in the homonymous Campo dei Frari, in the sestiere of San Polo.   SHORT HISTORY The first church built on this site dates back to the first half of the 13th century, when the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor received a piece of land in the area. Soon, the church proved too small and, in 1250, the papal legate, the cardinal Ottaviano Ubaldini, laid the first stone of a new larger church. Around the year 1330, the architect Jacopo Celega began working on a third church, which was completed in 1396 by his son, Pier Paolo. The bell tower of the church was built in 1936, the Chapel of San Marco was added in 1420, the Chapel of San Pietro in 1434, and the facade was finished in 1440. The church was consecrated in 1492, and the portal, surmounted by three statues, work of Lorenzo Bregno, was built in 1516. In the 19th century, the Franciscans were banished from the church, and they returned only in 1922. Read more [...]

The Church of Madonna dell’Orto is a beautiful Gothic church located in the sestiere of Cannaregio, in Venice.   SHORT HISTORY The church was built by the religious congregation of Humiliati around the middle of the 14th century, and dedicated to God, to the Blessed Virgin and to Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers. Because of its weak foundations, the church underwent important restoration works in 1399. In 1414, the Council of Ten, one of the highest governing bodies of the Republic of Venice, granted the church the name of Madonna dell’Orto, which was already popular among the locals. The name came from a miraculous statue of the Madonna, brought to the church from a nearby garden (orto meaning garden in Italian). In 1462, the Humiliati were expelled by a decree of the same council, and the church was assigned to the congregation of the Canons Regular of San Giorgio in Alga, which was suppressed in 1668. The convent of the Madonna dell’Orto passed in 1669 to the Congregation of the Cistercian Monks, and in 1787 came under a public administration. In 1841, the Austrian government of Venice ordered a general restoration at its own expense. The restoration of Read more [...]

Palazzetto Foscari del Prà is a small palace in Venetian Gothic style overlooking the Grand Canal, located in the sestiere of Cannaregio, in Venice. The palace is located near the Church of Santa Sofia, at equal distance between Palazzo Michiel dalle Colonne and Ca d’Oro.   SHORT HISTORY The palace was built in the second half of the 15th century. In 1488, the Foscari family bought the building from the Longin family. In 1520, the ambassador of Mantua and Duke Federico Gonzaga resided in the palace for a certain period of time. In the early 1700s, the prominent German merchant Sigismund Streit lived in the palace. After being owned by the Del Prà family, the Giannetti Hotels Group bought the palace in 2003 and transformed it in a 4-Star hotel.   ARCHITECTURE The facade of the palace, without particular architectural merit, is noticeable due to the Gothic asymmetric polifora (window divided by multiple columns) located on the main floor (piano nobile). The polifora, decorated with Bourbon lilies in half relief, is flanked by a single lancet window to the right. On the ground floor, separated from the upper floors by a cornice, there is a water portal characterised by an ogival Read more [...]

After you pass the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, on the Grand Canal, coming from Ponte dell’Accademia, you have on your right a relatively small but very elegant palace, built in Gothic style with Renaissance elements, called Palazzo Dario or, closer to the Venetian language, Ca’ Dario.   SHORT HISTORY It is not known exactly when Palazzo Dario was built, but some say that it underwent a major reconstruction in 1487 and the architect Pietro Lombardo was the one who dealt with the project. The architect restored the palace for the Venetian Senator Giovanni Dario, an important man of those times, diplomat and trader alike. After the death of Giovanni Dario, in 1494, the palace was inherited by his illegitimate daughter, Marietta. Married to Vincenzo Barbaro, she has practically brought the palace to the Barbaro family, which already owned two palaces – one in the immediate vicinity (Palazzo Barbaro Wolkoff) and one on the other side of Canal Grande, closer to Ponte dell’Accademia, Palazzo Barbaro. Ca’ Dario will be in the possession of the Barbaro family until the middle of the 19th century. After that, it will change its owners several times until 2006, when it will be bought by some Americans Read more [...]

Commonly known as Ca’ d’Oro, Palazzo Santa Sofia, located just across the Rialto Market, overlooking the Grand Canal, undoubtedly remains the most beautiful Venetian palace. Its name, translated into English as The Golden House, does not lie, because at origins, portions of the facade facing the Grand Canal were covered with this noble metal. Today, gold is missing, but the Venetian-style Gothic building still impresses, not so much by stature, but by the delicacy of its decorations. Currently, the palace hosts the Giorgio Franchetti art gallery, and it can be visited at the same time.   SHORT HISTORY The palace was built between 1421 and 1440 for the Venetian merchant Marino Contarini. He closely supervised the work of several architects and sculptors, of whom we can mention the Venetians Giovanni and Bartolomeo Bon, responsible for the decorations that adorn the palace, the Milan sculptor Matteo Raverti, and Marco d’Amedeo, probably the designer of the project. Marino Contarini died in 1441, leaving his only son, Piero, his entire fortune. Piero inherited, of course, the palace, which he will leave after his death to his daughters. A series of misunderstandings that followed led to the loss of the palace, which came in Read more [...]