Palazzo delle Prigioni

Palazzo delle Prigioni stands on Venice’s Riva degli Schiavoni, beside the water and the San Marco basin. Its enclosed passage connects it to the Doge’s Palace through the Bridge of Sighs, built in 1614.

Antonio da Ponte began the prison in 1589, and his nephew Antonio Contino completed it in 1614. The building served the Venetian Republic’s courts, interrogations, prisoner supervision, and prison infirmary. Rooms once held the Signori della Notte, while authentic cells, a tribunal, and torture chambers reveal its judicial past. Graffiti remains on some walls, alongside stories of Casanova’s escape and figures reconstructed from historic manuscripts.

Today, the Circolo Artistico di Venezia uses the first floor for exhibitions, concerts, and cultural events. Since 1995, exhibitions from Taiwan’s Taipei Fine Arts Museum have appeared here during the Venice Biennale. Opera arias and classical music can fill the former prison’s rooms, where history and contemporary culture share the same setting. The building is accessible only by stairs, and small windows once offered prisoners a final view of the lagoon and San Giorgio.