A Gothic palace facing the Salute across the Grand Canal: remodelled for the Pisani in 1475, home of Doge Andrea Gritti from 1525, and a hotel for more than a century.
At a glance
Palazzo Pisani Gritti stands on the San Marco side of the Grand Canal, at Campo Santa Maria del Giglio, almost facing the basilica of the Salute. It goes back to the fourteenth century and was remodelled in Venetian Gothic for the Pisani family in 1475. In 1525 it became the home of Andrea Gritti, doge of Venice, whose name it has kept ever since. It became a hotel around the turn of the twentieth century and today it is The Gritti Palace.
Key facts
- Origin: 14th century
- 1475: remodelled in Venetian Gothic for the Pisani family
- 1525: becomes the residence of Doge Andrea Gritti
- 19th century: John Ruskin and his wife Effie stay here while he works on The Stones of Venice
- Around 1900: becomes a hotel
- Today: The Gritti Palace hotel
- GPS: 45.43166, 12.33326 · Open in Google Maps
History
The palace was already standing in the fourteenth century. In 1475 it was remodelled for the Pisani in Venetian Gothic.
Fifty years later it passed to Andrea Gritti, doge of Venice, who made it his private residence from 1525. The Gritti name stayed with the building. In the nineteenth century it was still a private house that took paying guests, and among them were John Ruskin and his wife Effie, who lived here while he was writing The Stones of Venice. Around the turn of the twentieth century it was converted into a hotel, which it has remained.
What you see
Seen from the water, a tall front of red brick with Gothic windows in pale stone, the pointed arches grouped at the centre of the upper floors and single lights at the sides, each with its small balcony. At the foot of the wall the hotel has laid its terrace on the canal itself, a platform under white awnings, with mooring poles striped in blue. To the right the palace gives way to the white stone front of its neighbour.
Nearby
- Santa Maria del Giglio — the church on the campo behind the palace
- Santa Maria della Salute — directly across the Grand Canal
- Palazzo Genovese — across the canal, beside the Salute
- Palazzo Corner della Ca’ Granda — a little upstream on the same side
Sources
- Wikipedia (English), Palazzo Pisani Gritti: the fourteenth-century origin, the 1475 remodelling for the Pisani, Doge Andrea Gritti from 1525, Ruskin and Effie, the hotel
- Italyscapes, Palazzo Pisani Gritti: the same dates for the Pisani and the doge, Ruskin writing The Stones of Venice here, the conversion to a hotel at the beginning of the twentieth century
Find it on the map
See this place and what’s around it →📷 Become a Cultural Heritage Online photographer
Share your photos of places: they stay published under your name as the author. The more they're seen, the more you get noticed — and soon a contest will reward the most appreciated photos.
Log in or sign up free to add a photoIs this page about you?
This page is read by travellers and heritage enthusiasts who find it on Google. Tell us how you are connected to this place and we will take it from there.