Palazzo Coccina Tiepolo Papadopoli – 360°

At a glance

Built

From 1560, to a design by Giangiacomo dei Grigi

Enlarged

1874–75, by Girolamo Levi

Families

Coccina, Tiepolo, Comello (1837), Stürmer (1852), Papadopoli (1864), Papadopoli Aldobrandini, Arrivabene Valenti Gonzaga

Interiors

Redecorated in the 1870s, with Michelangelo Guggenheim’s involvement

Today

Aman Venice, a hotel since 2013

Where

San Polo 1364, on the Grand Canal at Calle Tiepolo

Overview

The palace stands on the Grand Canal between Rialto and the volta del canal, with two obelisks on the roofline that make it recognisable from the water. The national heritage catalogue records it as Palazzo Coccina Tiepolo Papadopoli, begun in 1560 to a design by Giangiacomo dei Grigi, and traces the work down to the enlargement of 1874–75.

Two family names here are regularly confused. The Coccina, who built it, were merchants from Bergamo. The Papadopoli, who bought it in 1864, were the Greek family — and the Tiepolo who owned it in between were the patrician Tiepolo of San Aponal, no relation to the painter.

History

The building passed through more hands than is usually reported: from the Coccina to the Tiepolo, then to the Comello in 1837, to the Stürmer in 1852, and in 1864 to the brothers Nicolò and Angelo Papadopoli, whose name stuck to it. Later it went to the Papadopoli Aldobrandini and then to the Arrivabene Valenti Gonzaga.

The nineteenth century gave it its present extent. Girolamo Levi carried out the enlargement of 1874–75, recorded in the state catalogue; the garden behind was not designed but assembled, by buying up the adjoining buildings and clearing them. Specialist scholarship credits Michelangelo Guggenheim with the interior decoration of those years, and Cesare Rotta frescoed the new staircase and ballroom.

The palace became the Aman Venice hotel in 2013.

What you see

From the water, a broad Renaissance front of Istrian stone with the two obelisks above — a Venetian sign that the owner was, or claimed to be, a sea captain. From land the approach is through Calle Tiepolo in San Polo.

On the second piano nobile, in an alcove, is a painted ceiling of about 1750 that is traditionally attributed to Giambattista Tiepolo. The attribution should be given as what it is: the room is often called the Tiepolo alcove, but the ceiling is not accepted in the standard catalogue of the painter’s works.

The garden survives, one of the few private gardens on the Grand Canal, reached from the water gate.

Practical information

• Address: San Polo 1364, Venezia, on the Grand Canal
• It is a hotel, and the interiors are not open as a monument
• Non-residents can book a table: the hotel states that both guests and non-residents may dine there, including in the Grand Canal garden from May to October — that is the only way in without staying
• Best seen from the water: the front is on the Grand Canal, between Rialto and San Tomà

Nearby

• Laboratorium — 102 m away
• Ostaria dai Zemei — Bar, 145 m away
• Palazzo Fortuny — 156 m away

Sources

• Ministero della Cultura, Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali, record 0500158513, compiled by the Soprintendenza di Venezia: Palazzo Coccina Tiepolo Papadopoli, 1560 – 1874/1875, attribution Giangiacomo dei Grigi, San Polo 1364
• Treccani, on Giacomo de’ Grigi as author of the Coccina-Tiepolo-Papadopoli palace, and on his father Guglielmo, called il Bergamasco
• Specialist scholarship on the nineteenth-century interiors (Guggenheim; Cesare Rotta’s staircase and ballroom)
• Aman Venice, official site, for dining access for non-residents