Palazzo Dolfin Manin Historical Timeline

Origins

Giovanni Dolfin -- known in Venetian dialect as Zuane Dolfin -- was a wealthy sole heir and a loyal follower of Doge Andrea Gritti, serving as Proveditore generale in campo from 1529 and Podesta of Verona from 1532. On his return to Venice in 1536, he decided to replace two older medieval houses near the Rialto Bridge with a single, grand new residence, commissioning Jacopo Sansovino to design it despite objections from neighboring families, including the Bembo and Dandolo.

Turning points

The palace was largely complete by Dolfin's death in 1547, at a construction cost of roughly 30,000 ducats. Sansovino's facade, built between 1538 and 1547 in white Istrian stone, includes a public arcaded walkway at ground level -- a concession the Republic's authorities forced on Dolfin over his own objections, requiring public through-passage beneath his new palace. Some historians consider this Sansovino's first Venetian palace commission, built around the same time as his work on Ca' Corner della Ca' Grande.

Influential people

In the early 18th century, the Manin family -- who had bought their way into the Venetian nobility's Golden Book in 1651 -- took up residence on the piano nobile. Their most famous member, Ludovico Manin, became the last Doge of the Venetian Republic; in 1787, he and his brother Pietro purchased the palace outright and commissioned the architect Giannantonio Selva to modernize its courtyard and staircase in the neoclassical style, though a full neoclassical remake of the facade itself was abandoned in the face of public opposition.

Cultural evolution

After the Republic voted its own dissolution in 1797 under pressure from Napoleon, Ludovico Manin lived out his final years in this palace in quiet seclusion, dying here five years later. The Manin family's library, one of the most significant in Venice, was expanded in 1810 but later dispersed, along with much of the palace's furniture, as the family's fortunes declined.

Present-day significance

The Manin family kept the palace until 1867, when it passed to the National Bank of the Kingdom of Italy -- a role its successor, the Bank of Italy, still fills today as its Venice branch. Restoration campaigns in 1968-1971 and again from 2002 have preserved much of the building's structure, even as its 19th- and early 20th-century bank-era interiors replaced most of the Manin family's original furnishings.