The Palazzo Manfrin Venier, once known as the Palazzo Priuli a Cannaregio or Palazzo Priuli Manfrin, is a
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
-style palace located facing the
Cannaregio Canal
The Cannaregio Canal is one of the main waterways of Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small isl ...
in the sestiere of
Cannaregio
Cannaregio () is the northernmost of the six historic ''sestieri'' (districts) of Venice. It is the second largest ''sestiere'' by land area and the largest by population, with 13,169 people .
Isola di San Michele, the historic cemetery island, ...
of
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
The heraldic symbols of the Priuli family on the walls of the palace, dating to 1520, indicated the Priuli were the original owners of the palace, likely Angelo Maria Priuli and his son Pietro (1484–1550). Pietro was a Savio for the sestiere of Cannaregio, which was a magistracy. Through his 1517 marriage to Andriana Venier, he inherited the castle of Sanguinetto, near Verona.
During the second decade of the 18th century, reconstruction was pursued using designs by
Andrea Tirali
Andrea Tirali (around 1660–1737) was an Italian architect working in Venice and the Veneto. He was responsible for the intricate design of the pavement in the Piazza San Marco in Venice (from 1723).Venier, sons of Federico Venier and Elena Priuli, the daughter of an Angelo Maria Priuli, descendant of the original owner.
In 1787, the Venier sold the palace to Count Girolamo Manfrin of Zara, a rich tobacco merchant who also owned another palace in San Artemio. Manfrin performed some modifications of the facade into a Neoclassical style with a central balustrade. He also had the palace decorated by Giovanni Battista Mengardi,
Giuseppe Zais
Giuseppe Zais (; March 22, 1709 – October 29, 1784) was an Italian painter of landscapes (''vedutisti'') who painted mostly in Venice. He was born in Forno di Canale.
He was influenced in his vedute by Marco Ricci and later Francesco Zucca ...
, and the ornamental painter
David Rossi
David Stephen Rossi is a fictional character in the CBS crime drama ''Criminal Minds'', portrayed by Joe Mantegna. He is a Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, and has appeared from the episode "About Face", which was o ...
. Girolamo Manfrin became a prominent collector of books, art and natural objects. After he died in 1802, the palace was ultimately inherited by his daughter, wife of Giovanni Battista Plattis.
The adjacent gardens were aggregated to those of the Palazzo Savorgnan, to create a green public park. At some point, the palace housed a school before falling in a state of disrepair until artist Anish Kapoor bought it and renovated in the early 2020s with a view to house his foundation