“I won’t be needing this anymore” said doge Ludovico Manin, as he took off his corno, the Ducal cap shaped like a horn, gave it to his servant and made his way down the stairs, accepting it was all finally over. It was the 12th May 1797, and before him 110 doges had resided here out of a total of 120. There would be none after him as the Venetian Republic had finally been dismantled by a greater force, Napoleon Bonaparte.
The first to call this place his home was a man called Agnello Partecipazio over a thousand years earlier. Most of his adult life, he had been fighting off attacks from the Longobards and found these islands out in the swampy lagoon a much safer place than any other too close to the mainland or to the open sea. Partecipazio built a small castle on this exact spot, and it was first and foremost a military stronghold, a castle ready for battle and siege. It looked nothing like a palace then, and far from what it is today. As Venice became richer and stronger over the centuries, the fort became larger yet lighter, and the grey solidity gave way to polychrome beauty. It was, after all, a statement. It amounted to saying, “we don’t need a castle, no one can ever attack us here.”
The palace was initially the house of the doge, the head of the state, but over time it acquired a dual function, and was divided into two separate buildings: one the seat of justice looking out onto the Piazzetta and the other the seat of government looking out onto the water front.
In time the two buildings would be unified, but Venetians understood early on the dangers of concentrating power into the hands of a single person, so a great number of offices were created, each with their specific mandate. The electoral and administrative systems became more and more complex over time, to ensure balance between all governmental bodies, and ensuring that the State and people came before any individual.
The political setup provided stability, and Venice’s power was for centuries unparallaled and much of it came from trading with a great number of countries and peoples, which enriched not only the city’s coffers but its culture and identity most of all. It was here that the great powers of the world met, through art as much as through commerce. The Doge’s Palace is in fact a mixture of all architectural styles of different ages and locations, but it is never untidy or chaotic, there is a harmony which no other human building in the world has ever achieved.
It is why John Ruskin, the Englishman who loved Venice more than most once wrote that “It is the central building of the world.”
