Palazzo Barbarigo della Terrazza is a palace in Venice, located in the San Polo district and overlooking the Rio di San Polo and the Grand Canal between Palazzo Pisani Moretta and Ca' Cappello.
Palazzo Barbarigo was built around the years 1568 - 1569, based on a
project by Bernardino Contin by the will of Daniele Barbarigo, a member
of the noble Barbarigo family, who already owned the two buildings that
occupied the place where this palace would have been erected. Over the
years, the building became the seat of an important private art gallery,
which was lost during the 19th century. It was accumulated by Daniele's
son, named Cristoforo Barbarigo.
In 1739 the marriage was
celebrated between Filippo Barbarigo, belonging to the family that owned
the building, and Chiara Pisani Moretta, belonging to the family then
owning the adjacent building. On that occasion, the two buildings were
joined with passatici, i.e. air passages that allowed transit from one
building to another by passing over the narrow calle that separates
them, known as Ramo Pisani Barbarigo. The passages still exist, but have
been walled up, as the buildings currently belong to different owners.
The building has undergone a split and has been subject to numerous
changes of ownership. Today it houses the German Center for Venetian
Studies (founded here in 1972) and a hotel on the lower floors, while
the second floor is owned by the Loredan family.
The building has an unprecedented L-shaped plan, due to the presence
on the first noble floor of a large terrace overlooking the Grand Canal
and the Rio di San Polo: this element is the peculiarity that also
distinguishes the building in its name . It extends for 24 meters along
the Rio di San Polo and for 14 along the Grand Canal. Until a few
decades ago it was used as a hanging garden. The building appears to be
well developed in height: it is composed of five levels such as ground
floor, mezzanine, two main floors and attic for the servants.
A
facade that is not very wide in width overlooks the Grand Canal, where
it borders on Palazzo Pisani Moretta: it, unadorned, has two round
arched single-light windows with balustrades for each of the two main
floors.
The main facade, which looks onto the canal, is
symmetrical and of a Renaissance layout, with two orders of four-light
windows with balconies on the main floors and, on the ground floor, a
large round arched portal with a key mask, the same as the one facing
the canal, below The terrace. On the sides of the terrace there are two
other portals of smaller dimensions. On the left there is a lower body,
of only two floors, dominated by the terrace which is bordered by a
white balustrade.
Despite the nineteenth-century dissipation of
the Barbarigo picture gallery, which led to the dispersion of most of
the artistic heritage, stuccos and decorations from different eras are
preserved inside the building, including works by Vincenzo Guarana, son
of the more famous Jacopo. These works depict the glories of the owner
family, that of the Barbarigos. The most valuable paintings are The
Coronation of Doge Marco Barbarigo and Doge Agostino Barbarigo receives
the crown of Cyprus from Caterina Cornaro, but two oval monochrome
overdoors with allegorical personifications may also have been mainly
painted by him. In particular, the first floor preserves original
decorations and a collection of paintings with portraits of doges
enclosed in wooden frames.
The famous art gallery was built up largely thanks to the work of Cristoforo Barbarigo. In 1845 it consisted of 102 canvases created by artists such as Giorgione, Giovanni Bellini, Palma il Vecchio, Rubens, Guido Reni and Titian, but was sold in 1850 by Nicolò Giustinian, the then owner of the building, to Tsar Nicholas I for the sum of 562,000 Austrian lire. The presence of 17 works by Titian led some past critics to hypothesize that the famous painter had had a studio in the building. Some works can be seen today at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.