Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo: A Late Gothic Palace and Museum in Venice
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- High
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Venetian
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Elite Residence
On this page9 sections
History
Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo is a late Gothic palace in Venice, Italy, developed between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as a residence of the Contarini family. It stands in the San Marco district near Campo Manin and the Rialto area, and its history reflects the changing uses of a Venetian patrician residence.
Contarini residence and Renaissance addition
The palace belonged to the Contarini family known as the Contarini “di San Paternian,” an ancient patrician family of Venice’s hereditary aristocracy. In 1499, Pietro Contarini, possibly Pietro di Giovanni, together with Marco Contarini and Giovanni Battista Contarini, commissioned a small Renaissance addition facing the inner courtyard. All three were senators of the Venetian Republic, the maritime state governed from Venice until 1797. The large external spiral staircase associated with this work gave the family and the palace the designation “del Bovolo,” from the Venetian dialect word for “snail.” The staircase is attributed to Giovanni Candi, although later interpretations assign its design to Giorgio Spavento.
Changes of ownership and institutional use
In 1717, the complex passed to Giovanni Minelli, who had married Elisabetta di Pietro Maria Contarini, the last representative of the Contarini line associated with the palace. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Emery company acquired the building and leased part of it to Arnoldo Marseille. In 1803, Marseille opened a hotel there called the “Maltese,” giving its name to the Maltese Court within the complex. In 1852, the palace was transferred by testament to the parish of San Luca and became the seat of the Congregation of Charity, a charitable welfare institution.
Astronomical observations and present use
In 1859, the lithographer and astronomer Wilhelm Tempel made his first astronomical observations from the tower belvedere with his own telescope. From there, he discovered comet C/1859 G1 on 2 April 1859 and the Merope Nebula in the Pleiades open cluster on 19 October 1859. The palace belongs to IRE Venice, the Institution for Care and Education, and is used as a museum.
Remains
Layout and materials
The palace stands between the Rio di San Luca and the Maltese Court and presents two markedly different facades. Red brick forms the building, whose late Venetian Gothic character is especially clear in the canal-facing elevation. The courtyard side is defined by the large round staircase tower, which rises beside the palace and organizes access to a series of open galleries and the belvedere above.
Facade on the Rio di San Luca
The facade facing the Rio di San Luca is arranged over four levels: a ground floor, two piano nobile floors, and an upper floor. The piano nobile floors are the principal residential levels of a historic palace. At ground level, two pointed-arch water portals open directly onto the canal, with smaller pointed-arch windows beside them. These windows are arranged on two levels at the sides and on one level at the center. Each of the three upper floors has a central group of five windows, flanked by six single-light windows, with three on each side. A single-light window is an individual opening rather than part of a grouped arrangement.
Scala Contarini del Bovolo and belvedere
The facade toward the Maltese Court contains rectangular and round-arched windows, together with the principal architectural feature, a large round tower enclosing the open spiral staircase known as the Scala Contarini del Bovolo. The staircase provides access to loggias, or open-sided galleries, arranged over five levels. Their airy construction continues through five tiers of flying arches carried on columns. The tower terminates in a domed belvedere, an elevated viewing structure, and the staircase leads to a gallery from which parts of Venice’s rooftops can be seen. Frescoes once covered both the interior and exterior of the tower, while only limited traces remain.
Courtyard features and collections
The rear courtyard contains a substantial collection of wellheads placed there by the current owner. A wellhead is the carved rim or upper structure of a courtyard cistern. The palace also houses paintings from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries belonging to IRE, linking the surviving building with collections preserved under its present institutional ownership.
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