Pictures and photos of the Doges Palace Venice, Italy. The current Doge's Palace ( Palazzo Ducale ) was built around 1340 in Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice dominating the southern corner of Piazza San Marco. The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme authority of the Republic of Venice, and consequently one of the most powerful men of the medieval world.
The oldest part of the palace is the façade...
more »Pictures and photos of the Doges Palace Venice, Italy. The current Doge's Palace ( Palazzo Ducale ) was built around 1340 in Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice dominating the southern corner of Piazza San Marco. The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme authority of the Republic of Venice, and consequently one of the most powerful men of the medieval world.
The oldest part of the palace is the façade overlooking the lagoon, the corners of which are decorated with 14th-century sculptures by Filippo Calendario and various Lombard artists such as Raverti and Antonio Bregno. The ground floor arcade and the loggia above are decorated with 14th and 15th century capitals, some of which were replaced with copies during the 19th century.
In 1438-1442, Giovanni and Bartolomeo Bon built and adorned the Porta della Carta, which served as the ceremonial entrance to the building. The name of the gateway probably derives either from the fact that this was the area where public scribes set up their desks, or from the nearby location of the cartabum, the archives of state documents. Flanked by Gothic pinnacles, with two figures of the Cardinal Virtues per side, the gateway is crowned by a bust of St. Mark over which rises a statue of Justice with her traditional symbols of sword and scales. In the space above the cornice, there is a sculptural portrait of the Doge Francesco Foscari kneeling before the St. Mark's Lion. This is, however, a 19th century work by Luigi Ferrrari, created to replace the original destroyed in 1797. A corridor leads from the Doges Palace over a canal to the Venetian Prisons on the other side. Known as the Bridge of Sighs, because the last sight of freedom prisoners got was through its small windows, it was built in 1614.
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