This palace, owned by the Rezzonico family, was built in the 1600s. It is located in the Sestiere Cannaregio overlooking the Grand Canal at the confluence of the Rio di San Felice between Casa Levi Morenos and Palazzo Miani Coletti Giusti, not far from Ca' d'Oro. It is also the birthplace of Carlo Rezzonico, who became Pope Clement VIII. The Rezzonico family also constructed the Ca' Rezzonico, a bigger palace located on the Grand Canal.
History
The owners and patrons of the palace were the Fontanas,[ merchants from Piacenza who had settled in Venice around the middle of the 16th century. They wanted to have their own palace built, and for this purpose, in the early years of the 17th century, they acquired an old building on this site, which was demolished to make way for the present palace.
Towards the end of the 17th century, the palace was rented to the Rezzonico family, who had recently been admitted to the Venetian nobility until the construction of their own palace Rezzonico, was completed. It was in Palazzo Fontana Rezzonico that Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico, later Pope Clement XIII, was born in 1693.
Like many other Venetian families, the Fontanas were forced to sell their palace with the crisis that developed from the Republic of Venice's fall. The banker Johann Conrad Reck bought it. It was later sold to the Levis and then to the Sullams, who still own it today.
Architecture
The palace was built in the Renaissance style, but it also acquired some characteristic Baroque details over time. At first sight, the facade shows a very accentuated asymmetry.
On the first floor, two portals open to the water; the main one is located in the center, under the quadruple window of the main floor, while the second one, of a much smaller size, is located on the extreme right side of the facade. The first and second main floors of the palace are almost identical; next to the quadruple windows, there are two single windows on the left and four on the right, all executed as round-arched windows with protruding small balconies. On the roof, there are two small obelisks made almost entirely of clay.