Palazzo Venezze (Conservatorio di Musica)

Palazzo Venezze, a Baroque residence built for Count Stefano Venezze in 1715, now houses Rovigo's state music conservatory. Its façade retains marble balustrades, mascarons, a dentilled cornice and two roof pinnacles.

Why it matters

Count Stefano Venezze commissioned the palace in 1715 from local architect Agostino Ghirotti. Maria Giustinian Venezze, the last of the family line, later gave the building to the city on condition that it serve a cultural or charitable institution in the family's name. It became the home of the Conservatorio Statale di Musica Francesco Venezze, continuing its civic and cultural role.

What to notice

The principal façade faces Via Cavour, with two broad arched portals on the ground floor. A marble balustrade projects from the upper portal to form a balcony. The noble-floor windows have alternating curved and triangular pediments; a dentilled cornice runs beneath the roofline and is interrupted by two pinnacles. On Corso del Popolo, two projecting wings preserve the outline of a former courtyard. The palace's rear once faced the open Adigetto canal, later covered over.

Context and history

The Venezze family appears in city records from 1332. Their 1715 palace marked their place in Rovigo's civic landscape. During the First World War, troops quartered in the building damaged it; the great hall floor was reinforced in the subsequent repairs, and the four columns of the entrance atrium date from this work. Maria Giustinian Venezze's bequest transferred the palace from private residence to public cultural use. The music school developed into the state conservatory named for Francesco Venezze.