Punta della Dogana

Punta della Dogana is the sharp point of land where the Grand Canal meets the Giudecca Canal, at the eastern tip of Dorsoduro. The building occupying it is the Dogana da Mar, the Republic's sea customs house, where goods arriving by ship were assessed before they could enter the city.

The present structure dates from 1677-82, when Giuseppe Benoni rebuilt it to follow the wedge of the site -- a long, low, triangular block ending in a tower. On top of the tower two bronze Atlases hold up a gilded globe, and on the globe a figure of Fortune turns with the wind, serving as the point's weathervane.

Since 2009 it has housed contemporary art. The French collector François Pinault took a long lease and had the architect Tadao Ando strip the interior back to its brick and timber, inserting bare concrete gallery walls inside the shell. It shows rotating exhibitions alongside Palazzo Grassi, the Pinault Collection's other Venice venue.

It opens only when an exhibition is on. The operator's hours are explicitly conditional on exhibition periods, and between shows nothing is published — so the building can be shut on a perfect afternoon with no notice on the door you walked twenty minutes to reach.

Closed Tuesdays.

The walk is longer than the map suggests. Punta della Dogana is at the very tip of Dorsoduro; the Salute vaporetto is the nearest stop and everything else involves a bridge or two. Visitors routinely arrive having walked from the Accademia and find the venue between exhibitions.

And the space overwhelms the art as often as it serves it. The converted customs warehouse is a long sequence of brick bays, and work installed in it either uses that or disappears into it.

Ticketed during exhibitions, and the operator publishes no tariff on its own site. Hours, addresses and vaporetto stops are given; prices are handled on a separate booking platform.

Admission exists only when a show does. There is no permanent collection here — between exhibitions the venue is simply shut, and the operator asks visitors to check dates before travelling.

A combined ticket with Palazzo Grassi is the normal arrangement, the two venues sharing an operator and usually a programme.

Standing on the point costs nothing. The outer tip of the Dogana is open ground, and the view from it — arguably the best free view in Venice — is not behind the ticket.

Where it is

Dorsoduro 2, at the tip of the peninsula where the Grand Canal meets the Giudecca canal, beside Santa Maria della Salute. Vaporetto to Salute.

Hours

During exhibition periods: daily 10:00–18:00, last entry 17:00. Closed Tuesdays and 25 December.

The operator asks visitors to check exhibition dates before visiting; between shows no opening is published.

Tickets

Through the operator's booking platform rather than published on its own site. A combined ticket with Palazzo Grassi is normally available.

How long

An hour inside, plus ten minutes on the point outside, which is free and worth more than most paid viewpoints in the city.

The operator publishes nothing about physical access for this venue, and its own accessible-guide page returns a 404. Recorded as a finding rather than filled in.

The building's shape is unusually favourable, though. The Dogana is a former customs warehouse at water level — a long single-storey sequence of brick bays rather than a palace with a piano nobile. There is no main floor to climb to, which is the obstacle at almost every other historic venue in Venice.

Getting there is the harder half. The Salute vaporetto stop is the only approach that avoids bridges; on foot from the Accademia or the Zattere there are steps. Arrive by water.

Not published, and not guessed: thresholds at the entrance, surfaces inside, and whether the outer point is reachable on wheels from the building. Contact the venue before travelling.

The building's exterior and famous weathervane sculpture are freely visible from the waterfront promenade and from passing vaporetti, so seeing the building itself doesn't require an admission ticket.