Page 90 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Venice & The Veneto

88  VENICE AREA B Y AREA

4 Doge’s Palace

The Palazzo Ducale started life in the
9th century as a fortified castle, but this and
several subsequent buildings were destroyed
by a series of fires. The existing palace owes its
external appearance to the building work of the
14th and early 15th centuries. The designers
broke with tradition by perching the bulk of the Arco Foscari
pink Verona marble palace on lace-like Istrian The Adam and Eve figures on this triumphal
stone arcades, with a portico supported by arch in the courtyard are copies of the
columns below. The result is a light and airy 15th-century originals by Antonio Rizzo.
masterpiece of Gothic architecture.

. Porta della Carta
This 15th-century Gothic
gate was the principal
entrance to the palace.
From it, a vaulted
passageway leads to the
Arco Foscari and the
internal courtyard.

Exit

KEY
1 The balcony on the west façade
was added in 1536 to mirror the early
15th-century balcony looking on to
the quay.
2 Sala dei Tre Capi (Chamber
of the Three Heads of the Council
of Ten)
3 Sala della Bussola (Compass . Giants’ Staircase
Room) This late 15th-century
staircase by Antonio Rizzo
4 Ponte della Paglia (see p117) was used for ceremonial
5 Adam and Eve with the serpent purposes. It was on the
are depicted in stone on the corner landing at the top that the
of the Piazzetta. doges were crowned with
the glittering zogia.

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