Palazzo Mocenigo Gambara

Palazzo Mocenigo Gambara stands beside the Grand Canal in Venice’s Dorsoduro district, near the Gallerie dell’Accademia. Across the water, Palazzo Giustinian Lolin faces this stretch of historic palazzi. Its three-storey neoclassical façade presents an unusual imbalance: the rectangular portal sits to the right. A mezzanine separates the ground floor from the main floor.

Built in the second half of the seventeenth century for the Mocenigo family, it later entered Gambara holdings through marriage. That connection joined Francesco Mocenigo and Eleonora Gambara. Giambattista Canal and Jacopo Guarana decorated the interiors, while earlier courtyard frescoes have disappeared. The main hall preserves Canal’s allegorical frescoes, created around 1769.

Look upward from the entrance: a serliana aligns above the portal, with a triangular tympanum and projecting balcony. Four windows with arched pediments stand left, but only one stands right. The Venice Industrialists Association uses the former residence as a congress venue. Its striking asymmetry gives this canal-side palace a distinct silhouette among Venice’s more balanced façades.