Ca' Corner della Regina is a Venetian palace, located in the Santa Croce district and overlooking the Grand Canal, near Ca' Pesaro, between Ca' Favretto and Palazzo Correggio. It has been the Venetian headquarters of the Prada Foundation since 2011.
The building was built in place of pre-existing buildings by the Corner family, in the 18th century, by the architect Domenico Rossi. Once the noble Venetian house became extinct, Ca' Corner della Regina was converted into a Monte di Pietà in the 19th century, while from 1975 to 2010 it hosted the ASAC, the Historical Archive of Contemporary Arts of the Venice Biennale. Since May 2011 it has hosted the contemporary art exhibitions and cultural activities of the Prada Foundation. The foundation has begun the conservative restoration of the building, planned gradually on the basis of the directives of the Superintendency for Architectural and Landscape Heritage of Venice and the Lagoon, with the assistance of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. The building was recently sold by the municipality of Venice to Miuccia Prada for 40 million euros.
In the construction of Ca' Corner, Rossi kept in mind the new lines
that Baldassarre Longhena was establishing on the Grand Canal with the
nearby Ca' Pesaro, from which the palace is visibly inspired. It is a
building on three levels, but particularly slender also due to the
presence of two mezzanines, in the attic and between the ground floor
and first floor.
The main portal, in a central position, is
rounded and developed in height, on a rusticated background that
characterizes the first level and the mezzanine, inspired by the
Renaissance facades. The first of the two noble floors is crossed by a
balustrade, above which there are seven round single-lancet windows with
a key mask, between which are placed some Ionic semi-columns.
A
large stringcourse divides this level from the second main floor, which
has seven windows arranged regularly, here however rectangular in shape
and each surmounted by a tympanum; between them are symmetrically
interposed by large semi-columns of the Corinthian order, which also
affect the mezzanine, at the level of which they rest on sections of the
architrave, which in turn rest on the thin frame of the roof. The
latter, in a central position, has two dormer windows.