PUNTA DELLA DOGANA

Description

Essentials about Punta della Dogana in brief

The Punta della Dogana (Customs House) is a modern art museum housed in Venice’s former customs house, the Dogana da Mar, at the tip of Dorsoduro Island. The location of the Punta della Dogana, at the confluence of the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal, is one of the most famous and prominent in all of Venice.

The history of Punta della Dogana

As early as the 15th century, a customs house existed at this prominent location to tax goods that came to Venice by sea. Since Venice was for many centuries one of the most important ports for the transport of goods between Europe and the Orient, the customs house was of paramount importance for the city. After taxation, goods were transferred to ships that could navigate Venice’s canals.

The original fortress-like building with battlements and a tower was replaced by the present building at the end of the 17th century. The triangular ground plan and the position at the tip of Dorsoduro Island make the old customs building look like a ship’s prow that steers out into the basin of San Marco.

Atop its tower is a sculpture visible from afar: two Atlas figures support a gilded globe on which stands the bronze goddess Fortuna, spinning in the wind. This magnificent sculpture was intended on the one hand to testify to Venice’s wealth and power, and on the other hand, with Fortuna as the wind vane, not only to indicate the wind direction to ships, but also to remind arriving merchants of the unpredictability of fate.

Punta della Dogana today

After the building had not been used for decades, the French art collector and multi-billionaire François Pinault acquired a building use concession from the city of Venice in 2007 (incidentally, Pinault also owns Palazzo Grassi, which also houses works from his collection of modern art). He had the building extensively renovated by Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The historic facade of the two-story building with its arcades was preserved. Inside, everyone was given a modern interior design with plenty of natural light. In the more than thirty rooms of the Punta della Dogana, constantly changing modern art objects from the museum’s permanent collection are exhibited.