Palazzo Barbarigo

Palazzo Barbarigo is a palace situated facing the

Grand Canal of Venice, Italy. It is not to be confused with the Palazzo Barbarigo Minotto and Palazzo Barbarigo della Terrazza, both also on the Grand Canal, and other palazzi, and several villas, once owned by the Barbarigo family

.

According to an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Foundation (Russia), the property, together with a part of adjacent palazzo, belongs to Russian conductor Valery Gergiev. It is a small part of the vast inheritance of the philanthropist Yoko Nagae Ceschina, who died in 2015.^[1]^[2]

History

Originally built in the 16th century, it is distinguished by its

Murano glass applied in 1886. At the time it was owned by the proprietors of one of the glass factories, who were inspired by the exterior mosaics on the facade of St Mark's Basilica to apply those to the palace. When the mosaics were installed, the then new owners were decried by their more aristocratic neighbours as nouveaux riches, and their taste garish and out of keeping with the genteel decay of the neighbouring buildings. However, it should be remembered that many of the Renaissance palazzi on the canal were once too covered in polychrome and gilt decorations, with elaborate plaster and stucco

work.

Later during the 1920s, Palazzo Barbarigo served as the headquarters of Pauly & C. – Compagnia Venezia Murano, one of the oldest glass factories in Murano. Part of the Palazzo Barbarigo is today a showroom and shop for Murano glass.

The palazzo follows the Renaissance pattern of design on three floors: an open loggia gives access to the canal surmounted by a piano nobile with open loggias and decorated columns, with a "secondo piano nobile" (secondary floor) above. The comparatively modern mosaics probably cover original windows, and obliviate the original design.

Notes

^ Elisabetta Andreis. Valery Gergiev, il tesoro immobiliare a Milano e l’eredità Ceschina: il maestro russo ha 20 palazzi sul mercato // Corriere della Sera, 1 marzo 2022
^ Documentary about Gergiev‘s estate in Italy, USA and Russia: Дирижёр путинской войны, retrieved 2022-04-25

External links

Satellite image from Google Maps (on the south bank of the Grand Canal, just to the right of the wide north-south canal)

45°25′52″N 12°19′50″E / 45.431°N 12.3306°E / 45.431; 12.3306

[1] Elisabetta Andreis. Valery Gergiev, il tesoro immobiliare a Milano e l’eredità Ceschina: il maestro russo ha 20 palazzi sul mercato // Corriere della Sera, 1 marzo 2022

[2] Documentary about Gergiev‘s estate in Italy, USA and Russia: Дирижёр путинской войны, retrieved 2022-04-25

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