The Palazzino of the Thousand and One Nights at the Ca' d'Oro in Venice

Hans Memling, in the Ca' d'Oro

A palazzino of the Thousand and One Nights

“Then there's the Cà d'Oro (or Doro), which belongs to the fourteenth century, but is indeed the most graceful, elegant, amiable dwelling on the entire Grand Canal.

Arab, Moorish, Saracenic and Gothic styles blend together to form a charming composite.

Everything is delicate, dapper and pretty.


The Palace of the Ca' d'Oro Its intersecting ogives, trefoils and quatrefoils, its bas-reliefs, medallions and openwork balconies, the tracery and arabesques framing its windows and running along the friezes, the colonnettes supporting its galleries and those hemming in the corners, are all of exquisite taste and delightful appearance.

It is a palazzino from the Thousand and One Nights; a shelter, an asylum, a retreat the likes of which art lovers can only dream of; in a word, a little marvel in the Calendario setting.

The Cà d'Oro, once the home of an illustrious family, has recently become the property of Miss Taglioni (and then some!), who collects Venetian palaces in the same way that connoisseurs collect old jars and numismatists collect pennies.

But the famous dancer divested herself of the estate in favour of the banker Errera.


Carpaccio, Dormition of the Virgin The power of gold thus replaced that of charms.”
Henry Havard - Amsterdam and Venice 1876

“One of the most remarkable palaces of the ogival period, the Ca' d'Oro, is distinguished by a wealth of ornamentation that is quite exceptional.

However, it would be wrong to date the entire building back to 1310; the only portico on the ground floor dates from this period.

As for the loggias on the upper floors, it is easy to see from the finesse and character of their architecture that they are at least half a century younger.


The mosaics in the courtyard Obviously the windows on the first floor also come from the Porta della Carta, and I see nothing impossible about this part of the Ca' Oro being the work of Bartolomeo Buono.

This beautiful palace now belongs to Madame Taglioni ”
Adolphe Lance - Excursion to Italy 1859

“La Ca' d'Oro, divine play of stone and air.”
Gabriele d'Annunzio - The Fire

Ca' d'Oro, house of hawthorn

The Ca' d'Oro Palace

“Look at the Ca' d'Oro, house of hawthorn.

Could anything happier have been imagined than to border it with a stone cutout that hung upside down in the canal, like point à la rose?

Opposite values, brilliant colours, rich designs, plays of light, this is all the pride of these illustrious facades, which the very patina of time, making them more beautiful as they become more decayed, harmonises in the same way as the old paintings of the masters.”
Adrien Mithouard - The steps of the West in Venice 1910

Water and air are framed in its columns

“They lingered, in the Ca d'Oro, watching the water and air frame themselves in the columns.


The Palace of the Ca' d'Oro He pointed out to her the precious mosaics on the staircase, different at every step, and which you perceive as you walk, like the little bare foot of the goat knows the grain and patterns of the sand.

In front of Mantegna's Saint Sebastian, in this Golden House, they contemplated the head swooning with pain, the mouth that squeaks and smiles, while the long arrows make, in the admirable body, a hard inner lace.

- You see, - said Antoine Arnault, in a low voice, with sad politeness, this expression of the face, this ecstatic convulsion, is voluptuousness...”
Anna de Noailles - Dominance 1905