Palazzo Contarini Fasan, Gothic palace at Grand Canal in San Marco, Venice, Italy.
Palazzo Contarini Fasan is a palace on the Grand Canal featuring three floors and a facade in the International Gothic style. The ground level displays rectangular windows, the first floor has three lancet windows with a balcony, and the level above contains two more lancet windows.
The Contarini family built this residential palace around 1475 and named it after their passion for pheasant hunting in the region. The structure was completed during a period when such private residences became symbols of wealth for successful merchant families in Venice.
Local residents associate this building with Shakespeare's Desdemona from Othello, calling it Casa di Desdemona in daily conversation. This literary connection has kept the palace alive in people's imagination across centuries.
The building is best viewed from the water, particularly near Santa Maria della Salute where the full facade is visible. Waterbus services and water taxis provide easy access to this spot, allowing you to pause and take in the architecture without rushing.
The facade preserves fragments of 15th-century frescoes beneath the jagged cornice, showing traces of colored patterns and ornaments. Between the upper windows sits the Contarini family coat of arms, a rare personal mark on Venetian private buildings.
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