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Palazzo Ducale Review

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Palazzo Ducale

Address: Piazzetta San Marco, Venice, 30124
Phone: 041/5209070 "Secret Itinerary" tour; 041/2715911
www.museiciviciveneziani.com

Doge's Palace

Category: Museums/Galleries, Castles/Palaces
Location: Piazza San Marco

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Fodor's Review:

Rising above the Piazzetta San Marco, this Gothic-Renaissance fantasia of pink-and-white marble is a majestic expression of the prosperity and power attained during Venice's most glorious period. Some architectural purists find the building top-heavy—its hulking upper floors rest upon a graceful ground-floor colonnade—but the design is what gives the palace its distinctive identity; it's hard to imagine it any other way. Always much more than a residence, the palace was Venice's White House, Senate, torture chamber, and prison rolled into one.

Though a fortress for the doge stood on this spot in the early 9th century, the building you see today was begun in the 12th century, and, like the basilica next door, was continually remodeled over the centuries. Near the basilica you'll see the ornately Gothic Porta della Carta (Gate of the Paper), where official decrees were traditionally posted, but visitors enter under the portico facing the water. You'll find yourself in an immense courtyard with the Scala dei Giganti (Stairway of the Giants) directly ahead, guarded by Sansovino's huge statues of Mars and Neptune. Though ordinary mortals must use the central interior staircase, its upper flight is the lavishly gilded Scala d'Oro (Golden Staircase), also by Sansovino. It may seem odd that you have to climb so many steps to reach the government's main council rooms and reception halls, but imagine how this extraordinary climb must have impressed, and perhaps intimidated, foreign emissaries.

The palace's sumptuous chambers have walls and ceilings covered with works by Venice's greatest artists. Visit the Anticollegio, a waiting room outside the Collegio's chamber, where you'll see the Rape of Europa by Veronese (1528-88) and Tintoretto's Bacchus and Ariadne Crowned by Venus. Veronese also painted the ceiling of the adjacent Sala del Collegio. The ceiling of the Sala del Senato (Senate Chamber), featuring The Triumph of Venice by Tintoretto, is magnificent, but it's dwarfed by his masterpiece Paradise in the Sala del Maggiore Consiglio (Great Council Hall). A vast work commissioned for a vast hall, this dark, dynamic piece is the world's largest oil painting (23 by 75 feet). The room's carved, gilt ceiling is breathtaking, especially with Veronese's majestic Apotheosis of Venice filling one of the center panels. Around the upper walls, study the portraits of the first 76 doges, and you'll notice one picture is missing near the left corner of the wall opposite Paradise. A black painted curtain, rather than a portrait, marks Doge Marin Falier's fall from grace; he was beheaded for treason in 1355, which the Latin inscription bluntly explains.

A narrow canal separates the palace's east side from the cramped cell blocks of the Prigioni Nuove (New Prisons). High above the water arches the enclosed marble Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs), which earned its name from the sighs of those being led to their fate. Look out its windows to see the last earthly view these prisoners beheld.

The palazzo's "Secret Itinerary" tour takes you to the doge's private apartments, through hidden passageways to the interrogation (torture) chambers, and into the rooftop piombi (lead) prison, named for its lead roofing. Venetian-born writer and libertine Giacomo Casanova (1725-98), along with an accomplice, managed to escape from the piombi in 1756, the only men ever to do so.

Cost: Piazza San Marco museum card EUR 12, Musei Civici museum pass EUR 18, "Secret Itineraries" tour EUR 16
Open: Apr.-Oct., daily 9-7; Nov.-Mar., daily 9-5. Last tickets sold 1 hr before closing
Vaporetto: Vallaresso/San Zaccaria

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