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Widmann Palace

The Widmann Palace in Venice of the Widmann family sometimes also called Widman or Vidman, who later became Widmann Rezzonico, were an aristocratic Carinthian family, ascribed to the Venetian patriciate and included among the so-called Houses made for money.

The Widmann family was originally from Carinthia.

Ferdinand III of Habsburg invested them with the barony of San Paterniano and Someregg; Leopold I, however, gave them the county of Ortenburg. In the 15th century they moved towards the Veneto, going to reside permanently in Venice, where they were among the first to support the Republic engaged in the war of Candia against the Sultan. As a reward, they obtained from the Venetian Government aggregation to the patriciate and access to the Greater Council (1646).

The assumption, at the beginning of the 19th century, of the surname Rezzonico, depended on the legacy left by Abbondio Rezzonico (died in 1810), great-uncle of the Widmann counts and nephew of the then Pontiff Clement XIII, born Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico: it was Antonio Widmann, son of Quintilia, sister of Abbondio, who received the Venetian inheritance of the noble Como family.

From that moment on, the Widmann family would be called "Widmann Rezzonico".

They were confirmed noble by the Austrian imperial government on 16 December 1817. They became extinct with a Giovanni Abbondio, who died in 1878.

Built between 1625 and 1630 for the merchant Paolo Serotti, the Palace was owned by the Widmann family until the end of the 19th century, with the death of the last Venetian descendant it was acquired by the Foscari family, today holders of the archive.

The main transformation intervention compared to the original project by Baldassarre Longhena was carried out in 1700 by Giovanni and Carlo Aurelio Widmann who wanted to give greater functionality to the building and a more rational use of the living spaces.

Map: Widmann Palace