Palazzetto Stern is a palace in Venice, located in the Dorsoduro district and overlooking the Grand Canal, near Ca' Rezzonico and opposite Palazzo Grassi, between Palazzo Contarini Michiel and Palazzo Moro.
The building now called Palazzetto Stern has very ancient origins: in
fact, the original two-storey Venetian-Byzantine structure was built in
the early 15th century, commissioned by the Michièl "Malpaga" family (so
called because Fantino Michièl in 1425 had a palace near Dubrovnik with
unpaid convict workers).
After undergoing profound deterioration
over the centuries, in the early twentieth century it was purchased by
the Stern family, who decided to recover and complete the structure.
Thus, between 1909 and 1912, Ernesta de Hierschel Stern (1854-1926),
aunt of Lionello Hierschel de Minerbi who was the owner of Ca' Rezzonico
from 1906 to 1935, commissioned the architect Giuseppe Berti and
especially the architect and decorator Raffaele Mainella to complete the
project, thus determining the current appearance of the building, to
which she gave the name of her husband, the French banker Louis Stern
(1840-1900). The two artists used ancient materials for a reconstruction
that expanded the pre-existing building. Today the building, born as a
private residence, has been converted into a luxury hotel, after a
careful restoration.
Palazzetto Stern is an elegant example of neo-Gothic architecture,
which fits in with the poetics that governed the construction of
buildings in those years such as Casa dei Tre Oci (by Mario de Maria)
and Villa Herriot (by Raffaele Mainella himself), both on the Giudecca .
Externally, the building is a reinterpretation of Venetian Gothic,
mediated by the avant-garde movements that took hold in the early
twentieth century, also brought to Venice by Stern, active in the world
of art collecting: raised by one floor compared to the old building,
Palazzetto Stern presents all facades decorated.
However, the
greatest importance has been given to the facade on the Grand Canal,
which is asymmetrical in its parts: the ground floor opens onto a
terrace overlooking the canal and a neo-Gothic balustrade, which can be
reached through a portico that follows the ogival motifs, with wooden
architrave supported by Gothic columns; under the portico of single
lancet windows with pointed arches and, moved to the left, the portal,
surmounted by a large marble bas-relief.
The two noble floors follow
a common layout, with a trifora on the left and a mullioned window on
the right; the variation is in the centre, where on the first floor
there is a single lancet window, while on the second floor there is
another mullioned window with a small balustrade terrace. Panels and
bas-reliefs are inserted in several points of this façade, one of which,
larger than the others, is inserted in an aedicule and represents Saint
George and the dragon.
The right façade should also be analyzed,
which, in addition to extending onto the Grand Canal with a short brick
wall, surmounted by merlons and pierced by two ogival single-lancet
windows, is characterized by an original window on the second floor,
large in size and culminating on the roof in a pointed arch dormer
structure.
Even internally there was the reuse of materials from
the old building and other buildings, such as stone decorations,
sculptures and columns, some very ancient. The presence of 20th-century
frescoes and mosaics should be remembered, the merit of which goes above
all to Mainella.