Walk the opulent halls where Venetian doges ruled a maritime empire for a thousand years — and cross the Bridge of Sighs to the prisons.
Explore → Get Early AccessThe pink Gothic palace that ran a maritime empire — golden staircases, the largest oil painting on earth in a council hall built for 2,000, then over the Bridge of Sighs into the prisons. Power and punishment in one ticket.
Seat of the doge and every organ of Venetian government for 600 years, rebuilt in flamboyant Gothic after fires in the 1500s — Tintoretto and Veronese repainted the ceilings the flames took.
Casanova made the palace's most famous escape, breaking through the lead-roofed Piombi cells in 1756 and strolling out past the guards at dawn. The 'Bocca di Leone' letterboxes in the walls once collected anonymous denunciations to the state inquisitors.
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