The Basilica of St. Mark (San Marco) is the most famous church in all of Venice, if not the most beautiful in all of Italy and our #1 pick for museums to visit while in Venice! The exterior of the Basilica was made of brick but was eventually covered with fantastic marble carvings, some much older than the Basilica itself.
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Doge’s Palace is situated right on St. Mark’s Square in Venice. In Italian it is known as Palazzo Ducale, and the palace contains an extensive array of smaller within, and is an absolute architectural masterpiece! Visitors to Doge’s Palace can feast their eyes on an exhaustive amount of beauty contained throughout the palace which includes a courtyard, grand halls, dramatic embellishments such as frescoed walls, gold-plated ceilings, stunning murals, and complex and intricate statues.
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Also known as the Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia, the Academy Gallery Museum of Art is Venice’s premiere art museum! This monumental art gallery contains the world’s most complete 13th- to 18th- Century art collections. These include masterpieces by the Venetian greats who specialized in Byzantine and Gothic art of the Renaissance period such as Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and more. These masterful Venetian artists not only shaped the history of Venice art, but European art.
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Venice’s Museum of the 18th Century, known in Italian as Ca’Rezzonica Museo del Settececento, proudly displays astonishing18th-Century artworks. Mere words do not begin to touch upon this ultimate Venice museum that is the Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca’ Rezzonico.
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The Basilica dei Frari, Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, or the Friar Basilica is most commonly and most simply known as dei Frari, and Frari means brothers. Here we will refer to it as dei Frari. This church was originally built by the Franciscans and is somewhat somber as compared to other churches in Venice, but its gigantic size is comparable to that of the largest Venice church, the Basilica of San Marco
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The Correr Museum, known as the Museo Civico Correr in Italian, is located on the Piazza San Marco/San Marco Square (Piazzo is Italian for Square), and tickets for the museum are sold along with Doge’s Palace (or Palazzo Ducale) tours. Although the spectacular building dates back to the 16th Century, the Correr Museum actually opened in 1922. To catch the most accurate glimpse into what ancient Venetian life was like for politicians, aristocrats and other citizens, the Correr Museum is a must-see!
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The Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca’ d’Oro Gallery brings to mind Byzantine architecture and is virtually Moorish in design. (Moorish architecture contains horse shoe-type arches as was common in 13th-Century Venetian-Spanish buildings.) The Ca’ d’Oro Gallery hosts Baron Giorgio Franchetti’s impressive art collection. Around 1916, the Baron bestowed the grand palace to the City of Venice for use as a public art museum.
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Next to the Venice Academy Gallery (Gallerie Dell’accademia Di Venezia) in the Palazzo (which means Palace in English) Venier dei Leoni, you will find the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, which contains one of Italy's most worthy collections of modern art. The splendid arrays of modern artworks were acquired by American trendsetter, heiress, and socialite Peggy Guggenheim who was, throughout her lifetime, a staunch patron of the arts. Ms. Guggenheim resided in Venice throughout her life.
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The Punta della Dogana Museum of Contemporary Art in its triangular shape divides the Guidecca Canal and the Grand Canal in Venice. Formerly a customs house and primary port of Venice, the Punta della Dogana Museum exhibits artworks from the Francois Pinault Foundation, known as Palazzo Grassi, which is arguably the largest collection of contemporary art in the world.
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Within Piazza San Marco, or St. Mark’s Square, is the Fortuny Museum, known as Museo Fortuny in Italian. The museum was once owned by a noble Venetian family, the Pesaro’s. The Pesaro family were well-respected, 17th Century ambassadors, admirals and Doges. By the turn of the Century, Canadian-born Mariano Fortuny turned the grand Gothic structure, which was once, but of course, a palace into his own art studio and his residence. Fortuny housed his diverse collections here and his widow donated the collections to the City of Venice in the 1950s.
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