Palazzo Malipiero is located in the heart of Venice, in one of the most fascinating and prestigious areas, next to Palazzo Grassi and overlooking the Grand Canal. The owners over the centuries have been numerous and among them are the Soranzo family, who probably built it, the Cappello family, the Malipiero family, who enlarged it to give it the current structure, and the Barnabò family.
Palazzo Malipiero History
The Palazzo degli Soranzo between the 10th and 11th centuries in Venetian-Byzantine style, as evidenced by the large portal and the four-light window, located in the façade facing the church of S. Samuele.
After the middle of the 16th century, the Cappello family decided to expand the Palace, before then having a visibly narrower and shorter layout, taking advantage of an empty space on the side of the garden that brought the facade on the Grand Canal to take on its current form. .
Enlargements and restorations of the Palace continued with Catterino Malipiero who in 1622 completed the construction of a new entrance hall to the first floor apartment in the place where previously there was a small building placed behind the one on the Grand Canal;
In the second half of the 17th century the Palazzo, with its architectural aspect that ignores the Baroque, is among the richest and most significant in Venice.
Around 1725 the Malipiero completed, following a now lost project, a further restoration project with the aim of giving their Palace an even wider and more dignified shape. The Palace was then united, eliminating the calle that divided them, with the building on the back side unifying their appearance on the facade towards the field.
In addition to this they enlarged the garden, also incorporating part of the Malipiero branch that skirted the Palace thus creating a new perspective axis that from the main entrance on the field led to the garden through the courtyard.
Its location, very central and decidedly strategic within the cultural and artistic paths of the city, makes the splendid Italian garden, scenographic and enjoyable, even more precious, with which it is equipped.
Giacomo Casanova lived, among others, around the middle of the eighteenth century, who, despite his very young age (then just fifteen), made his debut in the life of society right inside those rooms where he had the opportunity to weave a series of relationships with authoritative characters and with a good number of ladies.
Recent restoration operations, carried out by the current owners with particular care and with philological expertise, have allowed the Palazzo Malipiero to be restored to its ancient splendor and traditional prestige, while guaranteeing the full livability and maximum comfort of its rooms