A Personal Tour Of a Secret Venetian Palazzo and Backyard

Picture: Haupt and Binder

Up to date February 2025

From the road, one would by no means guess {that a} magnificent narrative of Venetian historical past, artwork, and tradition was hidden behind centuries-old plaster partitions and a set of picket doorways marked 3201.

Go by way of the doorway, and also you step again centuries into the Palazzo Capello Malipiero Barnabò, the Countess Anna Barnabò’s luxurious antique-filled palace with verdant gardens that spill onto Venice’s Grand Canal. Not usually open to the general public, I acquired a style of that life on a non-public tour of this secret Venetian palace led by native information Cristina Gregorin of Gradual Venice.

Initially constructed between the tenth and eleventh centuries because the Cà Grande of Saint Samuel by the Soranzo household, the palazzo has withstood a number of subsequent additions and modifications by the Capello household, adopted later by the Malipieros. Bought within the late nineteenth century by its present house owners, the Barnabòs, the palace underwent a significant renovation in 1951, restoring it to its eighteenth-century grandeur.

Palazzo Capello Malipiero Barnabò grew to become residence to the countess when she married into the venerable and influential Venice household greater than 30 years in the past. Anna Barnabò occupies the palace’s third ground, an expansive house with an unlimited drawing room that boasts an enormous Murano glass chandelier hanging from its frescoed ceiling.

Dripping crystals refracted the afternoon daylight, which poured by way of the canal-facing Venetian Byzantine arched home windows, casting shadows across the room.

From the drawing room, we entered the adjoining library, the place the countess reads and enjoys her favourite tv exhibits. The tv appeared misplaced, surrounded by such ornate decor, together with one other luminescent Murano chandelier. The palazzo’s eating room was not impressively giant (am I jaded already?), but it contained a number of essential vintage items, together with the ceramic Buddha beneath, whose head rocked forwards and backwards whenever you tapped his hand.

I first noticed the Palazzo gardens beneath by way of the home windows in a protracted hallway connecting the drawing room to the eating room.

Centuries-old antiques and fabulous artifacts apart, the actual magic started as I descended these historic stairs and handed by way of the courtyard into the backyard.

Guests entry the gardens by way of an enormous set of stylish doorways with a leaded glass transom emblazoned with an ornamental scrolled Barnabò “B” monogram.

Created on the finish of the eighteenth century, Palazzo Malipiero’s gardens occupy a big parcel on the Campo San Samuele. The property sits beside French enterprise icon and artwork collector François Pinault’s Palazzo Grassi, a recent artwork exhibition house I visited final summer season in the course of the Biennale. A central walkway between two symmetrical hedge-bordered decorative gardens kinds a straight website line from the again of the palazzo’s backyard to the canal.

Dialog With the Contessa About Life, Love, and Gardening
I had the glory of talking privately with the elegant countess concerning the gardens and discovered that she had designed them herself. She instructed me that the gardens have been certainly one of her prized private endeavors.

When she first grew to become the girl of the home, the countess knew little or no about gardening. This didn’t cease the adventurous former correspondent for the European press. Her eager curiosity in historical past, artwork, and shade led her to study all she wanted to design the gardens, now featured in quite a few books such The Gardens of Venice and Veneto, photographed by Alex Ramsay.

Below her route, a gardener now maintains the plush grounds the place the household hosts events and stylish dinners, typically for his or her neighbor Pinault’s artwork openings.

As we walked the gardens collectively, the contessa described her colourful and well-traveled life earlier than and after marrying the late Depend Barnabò; first, as a baby dwelling along with her household in Paris, then later as a journalist dwelling in Rome. On a stroll alongside the flower beds, she identified with evident delight which flowers would quickly bloom: pink camellias and little white roses on one aspect, blue irises, and tender pink child roses that may ultimately line the backyard’s canal frontage. Partitions of hydrangeas have been starting to sprout little buds, whereas jasmine would scent the air quickly after my departure. And though I’d seen huge quantities of attractive wisteria in every single place in Venice, in some way seeing its wealthy hue in opposition to the backdrop of the gardens’ terra cotta partitions…properly, sigh.

A Wedding ceremony Among the many Blooms
I discovered that along with quite a few completely positioned sculptures, a big water properly sculpted with the household coat-of-arms was moved from the courtyard to the backyard for the marriage uniting the Cappello and the Malipiero households.

The countess motioned towards the water the place Elisabetta, the bride, and Caterino, the groom, had taken their vows centuries in the past, overlooking the Grand Canal. I might nearly hear the music and see the visitors of their festive apparel celebrating the newlyweds in what will need to have been one hell of a backyard marriage ceremony.

Subsequent up: My experiences from Milan Design Week, Salone del Cellular, FuoriSalone–together with a day at Ventura Lambrate–-and far more!

Nota Bene: My sponsored journey to Venice was a part of the Modenus BlogTour, which was made attainable by the next sponsors: Modenus, BLANCO, Intelligent Storage by Kessenbömer, Dekton by Cosentino, Nationwide Kitchen and Tub Affiliation (NKBA), and Gessi. All opinions expressed herein are uniquely mine and never indicative of any sponsor opinions or positions.