Palazzo Zorzi Galeoni, Renaissance palace in Castello, Venice, Italy
Palazzo Zorzi Galeoni is a Renaissance palace in Castello whose white Istrian stone cladding stands next to the earlier Gothic Palazzo Zorzi Bon. Its corner plan produces a rare L-shaped portego, the main hall. An inner courtyard holds a wellhead, and a wing along the salizada now houses the restaurant Al Giardinetto da Severino.
Architect Mauro Codussi designed the palace after 1480, integrating elements from an earlier Gothic structure that once stood on the same site. Restoration work uncovered fresco fragments from that earlier building phase.
Since 2002 the palace has housed the regional office of UNESCO for Science and Culture in Europe, after the Comune di Venezia bought it in 1997 and restored it over five years. Until 2015 it also hosted the Association of Private Committees for the Safeguarding of Venice, led for 26 years by Alvise Zorzi, a descendant of the family that built the palace.
The palace stands at Castello 4930 along the Rio San Severo, positioned directly beside the Santa Maria Formosa church. The central location makes it easy to reach via the main routes through this Venice neighborhood.
The palace has a rare L-shaped portego, the main hall, forced by its corner plan. Its inner courtyard, once the palace garden and later a bocce court, holds a wellhead; the restaurant occupying the former wing along the salizada displays an old fireplace with a large Zorzi coat of arms.
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