On the busiest shopping street behind San Marco, a stone palace of the 1920s was built to give the city’s merchants a worthy home. Over its door the iron still spells out their name.
At a glance
The Palazzo della Borsa stands on Calle Larga XXII Marzo, in the sestiere of San Marco. It was built between 1924 and 1926 as the Palazzo del Commercio, the seat of the city’s commercial institutions: the Chamber of Commerce and, from its official formation in 1927, the Venice Stock Exchange, which shared the building with it.
Key facts
- Built: 1924–1926
- Built for: the Chamber of Commerce and the city’s Stock Exchange (officially formed in 1927)
- Address: Calle Larga XXII Marzo, San Marco 2033–2040
- Architect: not named in the Ministry of Culture’s catalogue; the design is often credited to Puglisi Allegra, which we have not been able to confirm in a primary source
- GPS: 45.43295, 12.33473 · Open in Google Maps
History
In 1921 a joint-stock company named Borsa Valori was formed for one purpose: to build a seat worthy of Venice’s commercial institutions. It raised the palace but went bankrupt within a few years and handed the property over to the Chamber of Commerce. When the Venice Stock Exchange was officially constituted in 1927, it moved in alongside the Chamber, in what was then called the Palazzo del Commercio; its rooms were enlarged in 1950 with the purchase of an adjacent building.
What you see
The Ministry of Culture’s catalogue describes the front: rusticated stone on the two lower floors and plaster above, richly carved window frames and entrance portals, and a strongly projecting, finely sculpted eaves cornice; inside, vaulted ceilings in the halls and stucco decoration throughout. At the main door, number 2032, a scrolled cartouche crowns the arch, and the iron lunette spells out Camera di Commercio Ind. Art. Agr., the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Crafts and Agriculture.
Nearby
- San Moisè — the baroque church at the end of the same street
Sources
- Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali — Palazzo della Borsa, Venezia: dates 1924–1926, address, description of the front and the interiors
- Borsa Italiana — the historic seats of the Venice Stock Exchange: the Borsa Valori company of 1921, its bankruptcy, the Stock Exchange’s formation in 1927 and the 1950 enlargement
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