This is quite the place. It is situated in the ex-Royal Palace in Piazza San Marco, across from the San Marco Cathedral, so part of a full day in this neighborhood. The design and initial building date from the years when Venice was part of the Kingdom of Italy (1806-1814) of which Napoleon was sovereign and his stepson, Eugene de Beauharnais, was Viceroy. The site had previously been occupied by the San Geminiano Church – an ancient foundation that had been rebuilt in the mid-16th century by Jacopo Sansovino – and ran between the Procuratie Vecchie and Nuove, the two long arcades of buildings which extend the length of St. Mark’s Square and had housed the offices and residences of some of the most important political authorities of the Venetian Republic.
The Venetian painter Giuseppe Borsato worked on the interiors decoration, producing a personal and very careful interpretation of the Empire style, clearly influenced by the French architects Percier and Fontaine and the Biedermeier style that then prevailed in most of the major royal courts of Europe. The frescoed ceiling of the Main Staircase – showing The Glory of Neptune – was painted by Sebastiano Santi in 1837-38. The building has maintained many of the distinctive features of the Napoleonic and Hapsburg periods; neo-classical influence in architecture, decor, frescoes and furnishings make it an important record of the culture and style of a period. Here, the refinements of French taste go together with an interest in the traditions of Italian Art.
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