Palazzo Barbarigo is a palace in Venice located in the Dorsoduro
district and overlooking the Grand Canal near Palazzo Da Mula Morosini
and, laterally, on Campo San Vio.
It is not far from the
Accademia Bridge and Palazzo Venier dei Leoni and borders on the rear
with the complex of the Anglican church of Saint George. On the left, it
borders on Palazzo Da Mula Morosini.
Palazzo Barbarigo, together
with a part of the adjacent Palazzo Da Mula Morosini, belongs to the
Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, this is only a part of the vast legacy
of the philanthropist Yoko Nagae Ceschina.
The building was built in the 16th century, during the Renaissance.
Since the 20th century it has become the headquarters of Pauly & C. -
Compagnia Venezia Murano, a glass company.
The building has one of the most characteristic facades of the Grand
Canal, it is distinguished by the mosaic roof in Murano glass, applied
in 1886 by the will of the then owners Fratelli Testolini, owners of the
Fratelli Testolini company later known as M.Q. Testolini, specialized in
the production of sculpted artistic furniture, glassware, mosaics,
textiles and furnishing accessories. This intervention compromised the
original appearance of the building, but was in harmony with the
sixteenth-century custom of embellishing the facades with frescoes, a
technique which, unlike the mosaic, is subject to rapid deterioration
(think of the frescoes by Giorgione on the Fontego dei Tedeschi ).
Palazzo Barbarigo is a typically sixteenth-century building, of
modest dimensions and three floors high, well highlighted by the design
of the facade. This, on the ground floor, opens onto the canal by means
of a loggia, whose two arches allow access from the water to the
portego. The two noble floors, with identical openings, have round
arched openings, among which the central quadrifora with balustrade
stands out. A thin serrated cornice crowns the building.