In Venice, Napoleon’s Forgotten Palace Finally Restored

Facing Saint Mark's Basilica, it had remained in the shadows. Napoleon I’s sovereign palace, built in 1807 on the site of the church of San Geminiano, was soon forgotten. And for good reason: for the Italians, this ode to the glory of neoclassicism embodied the irremediable decline of the Serenissima after the death of the painters responsible for its magnificence: Francesco Guardi (1712-1793) and Pietro Longhi (1701-1785). Caught between the rivalry between France and the Holy Roman Empire, Venice bowed to the Treaty of Campo Formio of 1797, which sounded the death knell of a thousand years of independence. Then began half a century of foreign occupation of the city and its royal palace by Napoleonic forces from 1798 to 1815, then by Austrian forces under the Habsburgs until 1866. Nor was the next chapter in its history one Italians fondly remember, since it involved the monarchy, whose representative Victor-Emmanuel III made a compromise with Fascism at the beginning of the 20th century. Want to receive news and updates about auctions? Sign up for our newsletter A Frenchman in Venice It is an understatement to say that when…