Ca' d'Oro/Franchetti Gallery

Marino Contarini, a procurator of San Marco (the Venetian equivalent of a prince), purchased a Veneto-Byzantine palace on the Grand Canal to match his newly elected dignity, and hired Marco d’Amadio to redesign it and Matteo Raverti to rebuild it in Venice’s unique brand of fairytale Gothic. Raverti used Lombard craftsmen, but many of the finest touches on the Ca’ d’Oro are by Giovanni and Bartolomeo Bon.

Finished in 1434, it was known as the ‘Golden House’ because of the golden pinnacles along the roof, while the intricate floral tracery on its main façade was dazzlingly illuminated with vermilion and ultramarine. The original gold is now long gone, and the next owners didn’t always keep the old place up, most notoriously the 19th-century ballerina Maria Taglioni.