Palazzo Pisani Moretta

Palazzo Pisani Moretta is a Gothic palace in Venice, located in the San Polo district (sestiere), overlooking the Grand Canal between Palazzo Barbarigo della Terrazza and Palazzo Tiepolo.

SHORT HISTORY OF PALAZZO PISANI MORETTA

Palazzo Pisani Moretta was built in the second half of the 15th century by the Bembo family.

In 1629, the palace became the residence of a branch of the noble Pisani family, the Pisani Morettas, whose name derives from the mispronunciation of Almorò Pisani, founder of the family.

Later, the palace was owned by Francesco Pisani Moretta, the last male descendant of the family.

In 1737, the building passed to the daughter of Francesco, Chiara, who married a member of the Pisani dal Banco family.

Chiara restructured the building by demolishing the external staircase and replacing it with the grand staircase by Andrea Tirali, and had the internal rooms frescoed by the most popular painters of her era.

Chiara’s son, Vettor, secretly married the bourgeois Teresa Dalla Vedova and had a son with her, named Pietro, not recognized by his father.

Vettor also had a second wife and a second daughter, who married Filippo Barbarigo. As the two lived in adjacent residences, the palaces were unified.

Upon his father’s death, Pietro filed a lawsuit and received a part of the inheritance and the count’s title.

When Pietro died in 1847, Palazzo Pisani Moretta passed to one of his daughters, married to a member of the Giusti del Giardino family.

The palace, which passed to his heirs and is still privately owned, is known for having hosted important historical personalities, such as Josephine of Beauharnais and Joseph II of Habsburg-Lorraine.

Recently renovated, the palace still hosts sumptuous masquerade balls during the Carnival of Venice.

ART AND ARCHITECTURE OF PALAZZO PISANI MORETTA

The facade of the palace is an interesting example of the Venetian-Gothic style.

The facade is divided into three sections by imposing string course frames of Renaissance inspiration, and has two orders of hexafora (six-light window). Both windows are designed after the loggia of the Doge’s Palace.

On the sides, we find two pairs of ogival single-lancet windows for the main floors, surrounded by indented frames and perfectly in line with the traditional tripartition.

The ground floor has two pointed arch portals and is surmounted by a mezzanine. The top floor was terraced during the 19th century, adding weight to the structure.

The interior of the palace is decorated in Baroque and Neoclassical styles, and dates back to the 18th century.

The first noble floor, organized around a porch about 24 meters long and frescoed with works by Jacopo Guarana, is made up of side rooms, two of which host works by Giambattista Tiepolo and Pietro Longhi.

The second noble floor features a small church overlooking the rear garden, and has a porch opened into a ballroom library.

HOW TO GET TO PALAZZO PISANI MORETTA

Palazzo Pisani Moretta is located about 1.1 kilometers on foot from the Santa Lucia railway station. The closest vaporetto stop is San Toma, about 250 meters away, on the waterbus Lines 1 and 2.