CA’ REZZONICO

Description

Essentials about the Ca’ Rezzonico in brief

The Ca’ Rezzonico a palace on the Grand Canal at the mouth of Rio Barnaba. With its beautiful marble facade, the Ca’ Rezzonico is one of the most beautiful palaces in Venice. Today the Museo dell’ Settecento Veneziano (Venetian Museum of the 18th Century) is housed in the palace’s rooms, displaying paintings, frescoes, glass, furniture and other furnishings brought to Ca’ Rezzonico from other palaces and villas.

The history of the Ca’ Rezzonico

On the site of the Ca’ Rezzonico originally stood two houses of the old Venetian noble family Bon. In 1649 Filippo Bon commissioned the architect Baldassare Longhena to build a new grand palace on this site. Longhena started the construction in 1667, which had reached the second floor by the time of his death in 1682. After that, the work had to be stopped for several decades due to the insolvency of the builder.

It was not until 1750 that construction work was continued by the new owners, the very wealthy Rezzonico family, who entrusted the planning to the architect Giorgio Massari, who essentially followed Longhena’s concept. In 1758, a member of the family, Carlo Rezzonico, was unexpectedly elected Pope, calling himself Clement XIII. The new building came in handy for the now papal family to fulfill their representational duties.

After the fall of the Republic of Venice, the family also suffered a financial disaster. The art treasures of the house were auctioned off and the palace was eventually sold. Over the next hundred years, the palace had changing owners and tenants. In 1935, the City of Venice acquired the Ca’ Rezzonico to establish the Museum of the Venetian Settecento.

The architecture of the Ca’ Rezzonico

Longhena’s design of the palace was in sharp contrast to the floral Gothic of earlier Venetian palaces. The four-story façade facing the Grand Canal is executed in marble, reflecting the prestige of the builder’s family. On the first floor there is an entrance vestibule, flanked by two windows each. The seven equal windows of the second and third floors each have a projecting balcony. Longhena achieves interesting light-dark effects through the deep articulation of the facade. The fourth floor has small oval windows. The palace is grouped around an arcaded courtyard with a fountain. Massari designed the huge ballroom, which extends over two floors and is accessible through a prestigious staircase.

After a visit to the Museo dell’ Settecento Veneziano, by the way, you can relax in the beautiful bistro-café of Ca’ Rezzonico with a drink or a small meal. Also a sunbath in the garden of the palace is pure relaxation.