Did You Know? Hotel Palazzo Giovanelli and Gran Canal

January 25, 2014| By:Five Star Alliance

The splendid residence that houses Hotel Palazzo Giovanelli and Gran Canal was built by the Coccina family. Sold in 1581 to the Florentine family of Luca Antonio Giunta, the palace was inherited by the Foscarini family after two of the brothers married descendents of Giunta. The Foscarini family lived at the palace in the eighteenth century, along with their most illustrious representative, Doge Marco Foscarini, who was responsible for the many rare manuscripts, all bound in red leather and stamped with the emblem of the Foscarini family. In the library of Foscarini Giovanelli Palace, nearly a thousand volumes collected by Marco Foscarini have been conserved for decades. Today, more than 500 of those historic manuscripts can be seen at the prestigious Imperial Library of Vienna. The books were a pledge for payment of taxes in arrears to the Austrian state by the declining Foscarini family.