Palazzo Fontana Rezzonico is a palace in Venice, located in the Cannaregio district, overlooking the left side of the Grand Canal, just before the Cà d'Oro palace, between the confluence of the Rio di San Felice and the Miani Coletti Giusti palace.
The owners and patrons of the building were the Fontanas, merchants
originally from the Piacenza area who settled in Venice in the
mid-sixteenth century. Deciding to build their own palace, in the early
seventeenth century they bought a pre-existing structure which was
demolished to make room for the current building.
Towards the end
of the 17th century, the building was leased to the Rezzonico family,
recently ascribed to the Venetian nobility, while waiting for the
construction of their Ca' Rezzonico property to be completed. In this
building in 1693 Carlo Rezzonico, the future Pope Clement XIII was born.
Like many other Venetian families, with the crisis resulting from
the fall of the Republic of Venice, the Fontanas were forced to sell
their palace which was bought by the banker Johann Conrad Reck. It was
later bought by the Levis and then by the Sullams, who are the current
owners.
The palace was built according to the Renaissance style but over time
it has also taken on characteristics referable to the Baroque. At first
glance, the facade has a very pronounced asymmetry.
On the ground
floor there are two water portals: the main one is positioned centrally
under the quadrifora of the noble floor while the secondary one, of
smaller dimensions, is positioned on the extreme right of the façade.
The first and second noble floors are almost identical, with the
mullioned windows flanked by two single-lancet windows on the left and
four on the right, all with round arches and projecting balconies. Two
small obelisks built almost entirely in terracotta stand out on the
roof.