Palazzetto Stern, Palace on Grand Canal, Venice, Italy

Palazzetto Stern is a neo-Gothic palace on the Grand Canal, raised one storey above the earlier Venetian-Byzantine building. Its asymmetric canal facade has a ground-floor terrace with a neo-Gothic balustrade, a portico with pointed-arch motifs on Gothic colonnettes and a wooden architrave, and a marble relief of Saint George and the Dragon set in an aedicula. The two main floors pair a triple window on the left with a double window on the right.

The original two-storey Veneto-Byzantine structure was built in the early 15th century for the Michièl "Malpaga" family. After centuries of decay, the Stern family bought it in the early 20th century; between 1909 and 1912 Ernesta de Hierschel Stern had Giuseppe Berti and Raffaele Mainella rebuild and enlarge it with old materials, naming it after her husband, the French banker Louis Stern (1840-1900). It later became a luxury hotel.

The name comes from Louis Stern, the French banker husband of Ernesta de Hierschel Stern, who bought the decayed building and had it rebuilt between 1909 and 1912. Inside, stone decorations, sculptures and very old columns were reused from the earlier structure and other buildings, and Raffaele Mainella added 20th-century frescoes and mosaics.

The palace faces the Grand Canal between Palazzo Contarini Michiel and Palazzo Moro, opposite Palazzo Grassi and a short walk from Ca' Rezzonico. The ground-floor terrace with its neo-Gothic balustrade and the ogival portico are best seen from the water or from the opposite bank. As a hotel, interior access is reserved for guests.

The right facade ends in a short brick wall topped with merlons and pierced by two pointed single-light windows; above the large second-floor window sits a pointed-gable dormer. Inside, stone decorations, sculptures and very old columns were reused from the earlier building and other structures.