The Palazzo Morosini Sagredo, also known as Ca’ Sagredo in the Venetian dialect, is a distinguished palace in the Cannaregio sestiere of Venice, Italy, celebrated for its Byzantine-Gothic architecture, lavish interiors, and rich historical legacy. Located on the Grand Canal between Palazzetto Foscari and Palazzo Giustinian Pesaro, and opposite Ca’ Foscari across Campo Santa Sofia, the palace has been a National Monument since its restoration by the Superintendency of Fine Arts in Venice. Originally built in the 14th century for the Morosini family, it was acquired by the Sagredo family in the 17th century, becoming a cultural hub that hosted luminaries like Galileo Galilei and amassed an extraordinary art collection. Today, it operates as the Ca’ Sagredo Hotel, a 5-star luxury property that preserves its historical splendor while offering modern hospitality.
The Palazzo Morosini Sagredo’s origins trace to the 13th century,
with significant construction beginning in 1382 under the patronage of
Michele Morosini, a Doge of Venice for a few months in 1382. The
Morosini family, one of Venice’s most illustrious patrician clans, were
prominent in politics, trade, and culture, with members like Domenico
Morosini, a patron of the Accademia Pellegrina, supporting artists such
as Titian and Tintoretto. The palace’s early history reflects Venice’s
mercantile prosperity, with its ground floor designed as a casa-fondaco
for trade-related activities.
In 1661, the palace was purchased
by Nicolò Sagredo, a Venetian ambassador and future Doge (1675–1676),
marking the start of the Sagredo family’s stewardship. The Sagredos,
documented in Venice since the 9th century, were equally prestigious,
producing figures like Saint Gerardo Sagredo (martyr and patron of
Budapest, d. 1047) and Nicolò, a noted art collector. Nicolò’s
acquisition elevated the palace’s cultural status, as it became a
setting for intellectual discourse, notably hosting Galileo Galilei, who
featured his friend Gianfrancesco Sagredo in his Dialogue Concerning the
Two Chief World Systems (1632), set in the palace.
In the 18th
century, Zaccaria Sagredo (d. 1729) transformed the palace into one of
Europe’s foremost art repositories, amassing over 800 paintings, 2,000
drawings (including possible works by Leonardo da Vinci), and a vast
library. His nephew, Gerardo Sagredo, continued this legacy,
commissioning major renovations by architects Andrea Tirali and Tommaso
Temanza. Gerardo’s testament controversially bequeathed the palace to
the wealthiest Sagredo heir, sparking a 20-year legal dispute that
delayed Temanza’s planned façade redesign, leaving it unrealized. The
palace’s prestige peaked in 1791, when Emperor Leopold II viewed a
regatta from its balcony.
The 19th century saw the Sagredo
family’s decline, culminating in the death of Agostino Sagredo in 1871,
after which the palace was stripped of many artworks. By 1913, it was
sold, and a bedroom was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
1906. Extensive restoration from 2002 to 2009, overseen by the
Superintendency of Fine Arts, revived its splendor, and since 2002, it
has operated as the Ca’ Sagredo Hotel, hosting elite guests and events
like the Venice Fashion Week in 2021. The palace’s history also includes
Marina Sagredo, a liberal 18th-century figure who faced controversy for
her nonconformism and inspired Carlo Goldoni’s play La Sposa Virtuosa
(1700).
The Palazzo Morosini Sagredo is a masterpiece of Byzantine-Gothic architecture, with a 14th-century core and 18th-century Baroque additions, reflecting Venice’s evolving aesthetic and mercantile needs. Its design balances the practical requirements of a casa-fondaco with the grandeur of a noble residence.
The façade on the Grand Canal is a striking example of
Byzantine-Gothic style, characterized by asymmetry due to later
expansions. Key features include:
A hexafora (six-arched
mullioned window) on the first piano nobile, originally centered but now
offset due to a right-wing extension toward Campo Santa Sofia. Flanked
by monofore (single-light windows) with slender columns, it reflects the
delicate elegance of 14th-century Venetian architecture.
A quadrifora
(four-arched window) on the second piano nobile, crowned by four
quadrilobes and a Byzantine frieze, creating a unique and graceful
silhouette. This quadrifora, photographed by Paolo Monti in 1968,
produces enchanting light effects inside.
Trilobate Gothic windows
added during later renovations, enhancing the façade’s verticality.
A
pre-Gothic ground floor, designed for trade, with spaces for warehouses
and offices surrounding a central courtyard (now the hotel’s lobby).
The Campo Santa Sofia side, rebuilt in the 18th century, features a
monotonous row of round-arched windows, a compromise after Tommaso
Temanza’s ambitious façade redesign—similar to Palazzo Grassi—was
abandoned due to the Sagredo inheritance dispute. The façade’s pink hue
and Lorenzo Quinn’s Support in Venice sculpture (2017), depicting giant
hands emerging from the canal to “grasp” the building, have made it a
modern landmark, symbolizing humanity’s delicate existence amid climate
change.
The interior, extensively renovated by Andrea Tirali (1718–1738), is
a Baroque masterpiece, with opulent decorations and a monumental layout.
Key architectural elements include:
Scalone dei Giganti
(Monumental Staircase): Designed by Tirali, this three-flight staircase
is adorned with Pietro Longhi’s fresco The Fall of the Giants (1734), a
dramatic allegory of power and collapse. Statues by Francesco Bertos at
the base, though of modest merit, add to the grandeur.
Portego: A
broad salon running the length of the first piano nobile, connecting the
Grand Canal to the land side. Its ogival windows and quatrefoil accents
reflect Byzantine-Gothic origins, while Andrea Urbani’s 1780 frescoes of
hunting scenes and allegorical figures replaced Zaccaria’s painting
collection.
Casino Sagredo: A mezzanine suite of seven rooms,
originally a private entertainment space, decorated in 1718 by Abbondio
Stazio and Carpoforo Mazzetti Tencalla with exceptional stucco work in
pastel hues, considered Venice’s finest example of Regency-style stucco.
Piano Nobile Salons: Rooms like the Sala del Doge, Sala Amigoni, Sala
della Musica, and Sala del Tiepolo feature frescoed ceilings, stucco,
and inlaid floors, preserving the palace’s aristocratic ambiance.
The
bedroom from the piano nobile, decorated by Stazio and Mazzetti with
Gasparo Diziani’s ceiling fresco (c. 1720), was sold to the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in 1906. It features Corinthian pilasters, amorini with
garlands, and a marquetry floor, offering a glimpse of the palace’s lost
opulence.
The Palazzo Morosini Sagredo was once a treasure trove of art, though
many works were dispersed after the Sagredo family’s decline. Its
surviving decorations, particularly frescoes and stucco, remain
spectacular.
1. Frescoes and Paintings
Pietro Longhi’s The
Fall of the Giants (1734, staircase): A dynamic fresco depicting
mythological giants tumbling, symbolizing the triumph of order over
chaos.
Nicolò Bambini’s La Sconfitta dei Vizi (The Defeat of Vices,
Sala del Doge): A ceiling painting showing Apollo vanquishing darkness,
a Baroque allegory of virtue.
Andrea Urbani’s Capricci (1780,
Portego): Large canvases with hunting scenes and allegorical figures,
replacing Zaccaria’s collection of over 100 paintings.
Jacopo
Amigoni’s Frescoes (Sala Amigoni): Delicate Baroque frescoes, showcasing
mythological themes in a refined style.
Giambattista Tiepolo’s Works:
Tiepolo painted multiple works for the Sagredos from 1738, including a
surviving fresco in poor condition (Huldigung an Venedig) and others now
lost or dispersed. His earlier works adorned the Sagredo chapel in San
Francesco della Vigna and the destroyed Villa Sagredo in Marocco.
Sebastiano Ricci and Gaspare Diziani: Additional frescoes and canvases,
with Diziani’s ceiling in the Metropolitan’s bedroom depicting dawn
triumphing over night.
Lorenzo Quinn’s Support in Venice (2017,
exterior): A contemporary sculpture of giant hands emerging from the
Grand Canal, symbolizing environmental concerns and drawing global
attention.
2. Stucco Work
The stucco decorations by Abbondio
Stazio and Carpoforo Mazzetti Tencalla (early 18th century) are among
Venice’s finest:
Casino Sagredo: Pastel-colored stucco with
varying relief levels, creating a playful yet sophisticated effect.
Piano Nobile Salons: Rich stucco frames and garlands, complementing the
frescoes and enhancing the rooms’ theatricality.
Bedroom
(Metropolitan Museum): Amorini, floral garlands, and a monogrammed
shield for Zaccaria Sagredo, showcasing the artists’ mastery.
3.
Historical Collections
Zaccaria Sagredo’s collection, one of Europe’s
largest, included 800 paintings and 2,000 drawings, with works by
Renaissance and Baroque masters. Notable losses include:
A
possible Leonardo da Vinci drawing, now untraced.
An alcova (bedroom
suite) now at the Metropolitan Museum.
Paintings dispersed to global
museums, diminishing the palace’s once-vast gallery.
The surviving
Murano glass chandeliers, inlaid marble floors, and gilded furnishings
in the hotel’s suites preserve the palace’s opulent aesthetic.
The Palazzo Morosini Sagredo encapsulates Venice’s mercantile,
political, and cultural history. Its Byzantine-Gothic façade reflects
the city’s early trade with the East, while its Baroque interiors
showcase the opulence of the Venetian Republic’s later centuries. The
Morosini and Sagredo families, both integral to Venice’s patriciate,
shaped the palace’s legacy, with figures like Nicolò Sagredo (Doge),
Giovanni Sagredo (ambassador to Louis XIV and Cromwell), and Marina
Sagredo (cultural icon) leaving lasting marks.
The palace’s role
as a cultural hub is evident in its hosting of Galileo Galilei, whose
dialogues with Gianfrancesco Sagredo were set here, and its patronage of
artists like Tiepolo and Longhi. The 18th-century art collection,
rivaling Europe’s greatest, underscores Venice’s status as an artistic
capital, though its dispersal reflects the Republic’s decline. The legal
disputes over Gerardo Sagredo’s will, prioritizing the wealthiest heir,
highlight Venetian traditions of wealth and inheritance, paralleled by
similar cases like the Giustiniani family.
Today, as the Ca’
Sagredo Hotel, the palace continues to attract an elite clientele,
hosting events like fashion shows and weddings. Its designation as a
National Monument and restoration by the Superintendency of Fine Arts
ensure its preservation, while Lorenzo Quinn’s sculpture has modernized
its global image, addressing contemporary issues like climate change.
The palace’s location in Cannaregio, near the Ca’ d’Oro and Rialto
Bridge, integrates it into Venice’s vibrant cultural landscape, offering
a quieter yet central base for exploring the city.
Location: Campo Santa Sofia, Cannaregio 4198/99, Venice, overlooking
the Grand Canal. Accessible via the Ca’ d’Oro vaporetto stop (Line 1) or
a 7-minute walk from the Rialto Bridge.
Access: As the Ca’ Sagredo
Hotel, the palace is open to hotel guests, restaurant patrons, and
visitors to public areas like the L’Alcova restaurant and bar.
Non-guests can view the façade from the Grand Canal or Campo Santa
Sofia.
Opening Hours: Hotel facilities (restaurant, bar) are open
daily; check www.casagredohotel.com for hours and reservations. Guided
tours of historical interiors may be arranged for groups or special
events.
Admission: No entry fee for public areas like the restaurant
or lobby. Hotel room rates range from €300–€1,500+ per night, depending
on season and suite (e.g., suites with hexafora views are pricier).
Restaurant dining is accessible to non-guests (average meal €50–€100).
Tips for Visitors:
Book a stay in a piano nobile suite to
experience the hexafora and frescoed rooms, ideal for art lovers or
special occasions.
Dine at L’Alcova restaurant for Grand Canal views
and Venetian cuisine, open to non-guests.
Take a vaporetto or gondola
ride to admire the façade and Quinn’s Support in Venice sculpture,
especially striking at dusk.
Visit nearby Ca’ d’Oro (Galleria Giorgio
Franchetti), Chiesa di Santa Sofia, or Rialto Markets for a Cannaregio
itinerary.
Check for events like Venice Fashion Week or art
exhibitions, often hosted in the palace’s salons.
Respect the hotel’s
elite ambiance; dress appropriately for dining or public areas.