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| Feast in the House of Levi by Paolo Veronese at Gallerie dell'Accademie, Venice Photo: Cat Bauer |
(Venice, Italy) Venice is rich with museums and galleries, both public and private, municipal and state. Some say that the town of Venice itself is like strolling through a museum, with some of the most powerful architecture and monuments on earth dotting the landscape.
Then there are private museums like the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and the Pinault Collection's Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana — always exciting, with dazzling exhibitions of contemporary art. There are foundations like Fondazione Cini and Fondazione Querini Stampalia brimming with treasures. There are works of art in all the churches. Even Venice's local hospital is an ancient architectural masterpiece.
But there are also a handful of museums in Venice overseen by the Italian Ministry of Culture, the branch of the State government in charge of national museums. Throughout Italy, these museums are free to the public on the first Sunday of every month.
Figuring out which museums in Venice are operated by the Italian State and where they are located can be challenging. Here's some help:
ITALIAN NATIONAL MUSEUMS IN VENICE FREE ON THE FIRST SUNDAY OF EACH MONTH
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| Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice - Photo: by concession of the Ministry of Culture |
1. Gallerie dell'Accademia - Perhaps the best known of all the national museums, the Gallerie dell'Accademia is located right at the foot of the Accademia Bridge on the Dorsodoro side. It's packed with masterpieces of Venetian painting up to the 19th century by artists such as Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese. An entire section is devoted to Canova. Leonardo da Vinci's drawing of the Vetruvian Man is here, but rarely on display because it is so fragile. On free Sundays, I have seen the line to enter stretch far down the block, so plan to get there early.
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| Giorgio Franchetti Gallery at the Ca' d'Oro on the Grand Canal - Photo: Cat Bauer |
2. Giorgio Franchetti Gallery at the Ca' d'Oro - Ca' d'Oro, or Palazzo Santa Sofia, is an elegant, distinct palace in Cannaregio on the Grand Canal. It's one vaporetto stop past the Rialto Market on the other side of the canal. Ca' d'Oro means "House of Gold." Built in 1428, it is the best surviving example of Venetian Gothic architecture. The last owner, Baron Giorgio Franchetti, bequeathed his considerable art collection along with his palace to the Italian State in 1916. The view of the Grand Canal from the loggia is impressive, and the floor of the courtyard is astonishing.
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| Marciana Library on right - Photo: Veneto.Info |
In St. Mark's Square, things start to get complicated. Both the gilded monumental rooms of the Marciana Library designed by Jacopo Sansovino, and the
Archaeological Museum, are national museums under the supervision of the Italian
State. Both are located in Piazza San Marco in the enormous building
that faces the Doge's Palace and then turns the corner at the Campanile and becomes the Procuratie Nuove.
However, to enter both, you normally have to go
through the Correr Museum far down at the other end of Piazza San Marco in the Napoleonic wing, the structure that faces St. Mark's Basilica. The Correr is a Venetian municipal museum under the umbrella of the Venice
Civic Museums (MUVE). It is not part of the Italian Ministry of Culture. It is run by Venice. Therefore, it is not free on the first Sunday of the month.
However, during normal operations, the Marciana Library and the Archaeological Museum are included in the price of the ticket you pay to enter the Correr Museum because the layout is such that you can walk right through them all of them. But not on the first Sunday of the month!
The Italian Minister of Culture is very clear:
“Domenica al museo”: free admission to the National Archaeological Museum of Venice and Monumental Rooms of Marciana Library (NOT Museo Correr) for everyone on the first Sunday of each month.
If you think Italian bureaucracy is convoluted, just imagine when it’s layered with an extra labyrinth of Venetian bureaucracy.
So, what are you supposed to do? Luckily, both the Marciana Library and the Archaeological Museum also have their own separate entrances, which are normally closed to the public. They are open on the first Sunday of each month. To put it in language the average person can understand (coffee), the entrance to the Marciana is on the Caffè Chioggia side. The entrance to the Archaeological Museum on the Caffè Florian side.
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| Reading room of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana Photo: Wikipedia |
3. Monumental rooms of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana - One of the earliest public libraries on the planet, the Marciana was founded in 1468 when the humanist scholar Cardinal Bessarion donated his collection of Greek and Latin manuscripts to Venice. However, it took Venice some time to build the library, which was designed by Jacopo Sansovino and constructed between 1537 and 1588.
In addition to paintings by Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese, you can see Fra Mauro's large, original 1450 map of the world, and the last will and testament of Marco Polo, dated January 9, 1323 M.V. (according to the Venetian calendar that would be 1324).
When you first enter the vestibule, look up. On the ceiling, you will see one of my very favorite paintings, Wisdom by Titian.
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| National Archaeological Museum of Venice - Photo: Joan Porcel |
4. National Archaeological Museum of Venice - Surprisingly, the Ministry of Culture website for the Archaeological Museum is very clear and in English, a rarity, so you can read it yourselves. However, the history of the collection is completely convoluted, shuffling enormous, ancient, heavy statues from Rome to Venice and then all over the place.
Let's start with this: the collection was first established in 1523 by Cardinal Domenico Grimani, and contains ancient Greece and Roman statues, as well as coins, relics, marbles and busts.
We'll continue the story of the Archaeological Museum and the ancient sculptures over at Italian museum No. 5, Palazzo Grimani.
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| Domus Grimani - Sala della Tribuna at Palazzo Grimani - Photo: Venetian Heritage |
5. Museo di Palazzo Grimani - In 2021, I spent a consider amount of time trying to unravel the history of the Grimani family and what was going on over at Palazzo Grimani. Where did the sculptures come from in the first place? How did ancient Greek and Roman statues end up in Venice? Who was the very important Grimani family? To me, the clearest answers to those questions are in my post:
A Brief History of Palazzo Grimani + Domus Grimani & The Room of the Doge (+ Georg Baselitz Does Double Duty in Venice)
Palazzo Grimani is right off Campo Santa Maria Formosa, about a 10 minute walk from Piazza San Marco. Make the trip from the Archeological Museum to the palace to get a fuller understanding of the history, especially because instead of paying €14 to enter, on the first Sunday of the month, it's free.
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| Wood, lacquer & painted ivory Chinese chess set from the 18th century Photo: by concession of the Ministry of Culture |
The culmination of Prince Henry’s journeys is one of the most important collections in Europe of Japanese art of the Edo period (1603-1868), with additional sections dedicated to China, Indonesia and South-Eastern Asia.
Prince Henry had no kids, but did own Palazzo Ca' Vendramin Calergi across the Grand Canal from Ca' Pesaro. It's where Richard Wagner died and where the Venice Casino is located.
