The Royal Gardens of Venice are green areas located between Piazza San Marco and the San Marco basin, in Venice.
In The history of the Royal Gardens dates back to the reform project
of the Marciana area desired by Napoleon: in 1806, following the
designation by Bonaparte and the viceroy Eugenio di Beauharnais of the
Procuratie Nuove at Palazzo Reale, the architect Giovanni Antonio
Antolini created the first plans for the residence, which was to have a
garden, to be set up on land overlooking the San Marco basin already
occupied by the Granaries of Terra Nova, a Gothic building built in 1340
and once used as a location for the grain market and for small shops.
With the fall of Napoleon and the return of the Austrians to Venice,
the Royal Gardens were the subject of new interventions: the side
towards the lagoon was enriched by the construction of a greenhouse on
the Zecca bridge and, on the opposite side, by an elegant Coffee House
designed in neoclassical style by Lorenzo Santi (1783–1839) between 1815
and 1817. A drawbridge over the rio della Zecca was built to connect the
green spaces directly to the Procuratie, in order to allow their use as
a garden of the Royal Palace with promenade on the water.
In 1857
the avenue along the shore was separated from the Gardens and opened to
the public, by the will of Archduke Ferdinando Massimiliano, while the
Gardens remained for the exclusive use of the Court and in 1872, to
allow access from the square of San Marco, it was built on the Rio della
Zecca a new iron bridge flush with the water. In 1893 the bridge between
the garden and the Palazzo was replaced with a new iron drawbridge,
designed by the civil engineer Filippo Lavezzari. At the end of the 19th
century, a pergola with an iron and cast iron structure was built which
constitutes one of the main elements of the architecture of the Gardens.
On 23 December 1920, the Royal Gardens were fully opened to the public
and handed over to the Municipality.
The Coffee House
contained within the gardens
The garden has gradually fallen into
disuse so much so that in 2014 the Italian state property, which owns
it, decided to give it in concession to the Venice Gardens Foundation
Onlus for 19 years to ensure the recovery and restoration of the gardens
themselves and all the structures contained therein with a loan from the
Generali company. The architect in charge was Paolo Pejrone. In
September 2020, the Gardens reopened after a careful restoration.