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After purchasing our tickets to the Doge’s Palace (Palazzo Ducale) in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Venice, Italy, we walked through the Opera Museum (Museo dell’Opera) wing of the building. In the past, the Opera was a technical office responsible for the maintenance of the building. It’s located on the southwest corner of the ground floor.
History
In the 19th century, the Doge’s Palace was in a terrible state of decay. The conditions were so bad that it was possible the building wouldn’t survive. In 1876, a major restoration project was launched, seeing 42 capitals and other architectural elements removed from the exterior and courtyard of the palace and replaced by copies. The originals, which are considered masterpieces, were restored and placed in the Opera Museum.
Rooms
The museum is made up of six rooms. In the first room are six of the oldest capitals and their columns from the lagoon side of the palace, dating back to 1340. In the second room are four capitals and their columns from the Piazza San Marco side, also from the 14th century. The third room contains three more capitals with columns from the 14th and 15th centuries.
In the fourth and fifth room are column shafts as well as a capital from the upper loggia on the piazza side.
The sixth room contains 26 capitals from the first floor loggias. They date back to the 14th and 15th centuries.
