FONDACO DEI TEDESCHI

On the side that goes towards St. Mark's district, near the bridge you can see a large building with a crenellated roof called Fondaco dei Tedeschi, which you probably already noticed from a vaporetto. The "Fondaco" or "warehouse" was in fact a kind of chamber of commerce, where the important merchant community of Germanic residents gathered in Venice. At the beginning of the 1500s it was half destroyed by fire, but rebuilt soon after in a much more grandiose fashion with offices, warehouses, and retail space, partially referencing the traditional appearances of the Venetian trading "fondaci" since the Byzantine era. Unfortunately you can no longer see the exterior decorations of the early 1500s that had been entrusted to Giorgione and Titian: only a few traces remain, and are preserved at Ca' d'Oro. For this reason, the palace may seem a bit bare.