The Cà d'Oro, one of the most prestigious late Gothic palaces in Venice, houses on two floors the important art collection of Baron Giorgio Franchetti (1865-1927), who in 1916 donated his collections and building itself, after having restored its original splendor with extensive restorations.
The nobleman's collection, including furniture, paintings, medals, tapestries, bronzes and sculptures, was expanded over the years - and since the opening of the Gallery in 1927 - with the annexation of Renaissance works from suppressed or demolished religious buildings and collections from other state museums in Venice, while a new exhibition section dedicated to Venetian ceramics has found space, since 1992, in the adjacent Palazzo Duodo.
The visit of the palace, which still retains, as a whole, the structure of the ancient Venetian warehouse does not end with the Gallery, opened to the public in 1927. Of particular interest is the internal courtyard, with the evocative floor mosaic in ancient marble, created by the baron himself to evoke the early Christian basilicas, and the original well-head sculpted by Bartolomeo Bon in 1427.
In the atrium - ideal for keeping the building and its fate - the ashes of Giorgio Franchetti rest under a porphyry stone.