Palazzo Ducale

Don’t be fooled by its Gothic elegance: this building was all business, from medieval carved stone capitals depicting key Venetian guilds along the arcade, to Giovanni and Bartolomeo Bon’s 15th-century PortadellaCarta (Paper Door), the bulletin board for government decrees facing the piazza. The building was damaged by fire in 1577, but Antonio da Ponte (who designed the Ponte di Rialto) restored it.

Entering through the colonnaded courtyard, you’ll spot Sansovino’s statues of Mars and Neptune flanking the Scala dei Giganti (Giants’ Staircase), which Antonio Rizzo built as a suitably grand entrance for Venice’s dignitaries and which is currently undergoing restoration. Climb the Scala dei Censori (Censors’ Staircase) and Sansovino’s lavish gilt stuccowork Scala d’Oro (Golden Staircase), and emerge into 3rd-floor rooms covered with gorgeous propaganda.

In the Sala delle Quattro Porte (Hall of the Four Doors), ambassadors awaited ducal audiences under a Palladio-designed ceiling frescoed by Tintoretto, showing Justice presenting sword and scales to Venice’s Doge Girolamo Priuli. Other convincing shows of Venetian superiority include Titian’s 1576 Doge Antonio Grimani Kneeling before Faith and Giambattista Tiepolo’s 1740s Venice Receiving Gifts of the Sea from Neptune, where Venice is a gorgeous blonde casually leaning on a lion. Special delegations waited in the Anticollegio (College Antechamber), where Tintoretto drew not-so-subtle parallels between Roman gods and Venetian government: Vulcan and Cyclops Forging Weapons for Venice, Mercury and the Three Graces rewarding Venice’s industriousness with beauty, and Minerva Dismissing Mars in a Venetian triumph of savvy over brute force. Also in the room is a vivid reminder of diplomatic behaviour to avoid: Paolo Veronese’s Rape of Europe.

Few were granted audience in the Palladio-designed Collegio (Council Room), with Veronese’s quintessentially rosy view of Venice in his 1578–82 Virtues of the Republic ceiling panels. Tintoretto attempted similar flattery in The Triumph of Venice on the ceiling of the adjoining Senato (Senate Hall), but his dark palette hints at the shadowy side of Venetian politics. The Trial Chambers of the Council of Ten features Veronese’s positively glowing ceiling panel of Juno Bestowing her Gifts on Venice, while in the dark, carved-wood corner is a slot where accusations of treason were slipped to Venice’s dreaded secret service.

On the 2nd floor, the cavernous 1419 Sala del Maggior Consiglio (Grand Council Hall) features the doge’s throne with a 22m-by-7m backdrop of Paradise by Tintoretto’s son Domenico that’s more politically correct than pretty: heaven is crammed with 500 prominent Venetians, including several Tintoretto patrons. Veronese’s political posturing is more elegant in his oval ceiling panel The Apotheosis of Venice, where gods marvel at Venice’s coronation by angels, with foreign dignitaries and Venetian blondes rubbernecking from the balcony below.

Only the Itinerari Segreti access the Council of Ten headquarters and Piombi attic prison, but visitors can take a detour on the doges’ dark side down the hall from the Sala del Maggior Consiglio. Stop by the chamber featuring ominous scenes by the master of apocalyptic visions, Hieronymus Bosch, then follow the path of condemned prisoners across the covered Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs) to Venice’s 16th-century Prigioni Nuove (New Prisons), with dank cells covered with graffitied protestations of innocence.