Ca' da Mosto


The Ca' da Mosto is a 13th-century, Venetian-Byzantine style palace, the oldest on the Grand Canal, located between the Rio dei Santi Apostoli and the Palazzo Bollani Erizzo, in the sestiere of Cannaregio in Venice, Italy.

Architecture

The palace has high narrow arches and distinctive capitals. The features show its beginnings as a casa-fondaco, the home and workplace of its original merchant owner. A second floor was added at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and a third in the nineteenth. The central part of the first floor is decorated with a wide heptafora with leftmost opening currently closed up.

History

The palace dates from the early 13th-century, and takes its name from the Venetian da Mosto family, the most famous of whom was Alvise Cadamosto, an Italian explorer who worked with slave traders in Portugal, and who was born in the palace in 1432. It stayed in the da Mosto family until 1603, when Chiara da Mosto left her entire estate to Leonardo Donà dalle Rose of the Donà family, a nephew of her second husband, rather than to her da Mosto relatives, with whom she had fallen out.
Between the 16th and the 18th centuries the Ca' da Mosto housed the well-known Albergo Leon Bianco. In 1769 and 1775 the Holy Roman Emperor and son of Maria Theresa, Joseph II, lived here during his stay in Venice.

Present day

The Ca' da Mosto currently sits empty, with the high waters of the canal having breached its basement. According to an interview in The Lady, the palace is admired by Francesco da Mosto, a descendant of its eponymous former owners, and is the Venetian building he would most like to see restored. As of January 2019, the Ca' da Mosto has undergone a €3 million restoration, followed by an €8.7 million investment intended to transform the palace into a luxury hotel. Renovation work is expected to be finished by 2020.