Secluded by its small courtyard, at the end of a narrow street near Campo Manin, rises gracefully the Scala Contarini del Bovolo, an eccentric external spiral staircase (“bovolo” in venetian) and great example of transition from the Gothic style to the Renaissance art in Venice. From the top of it you can enjoy an amazing and unusual view of roofs, chimneys and bell towers, as you were on a noble Venetian turret.
Beside the staircase, the Contarini Fasan Palace, in flamboyant Gothic style (1475), probably made by Giovanni Candi, it is legendarily called “the home of Desdemona». At the end of the XV century, Pietro Contarini added at his Gothic palace of St. Paternian a new element to visually qualify and decorate the internal façade in front of a small courtyard, once protected by a wall. A sequence of overlapping loggias link the floors of the building to an open spiral staircase inside a cylindrical tower pierced by bowings, recalling Gothic models and Byzantine stepped towers.
Useful information:
Address: Campo Manin, S. Marco 4299 - Venezia
Opening times: From Tuesday to Sunday: 10:00 – 13:30 and 14:00 – 18:00, last visit at 17:30
Monday closed. Ticket Office closes 30 minutes before the monument.
Closed on August 15th, November 1st, December 25th and 26th, January 1st
Price:
7€ Full Price
6€ Concessions: 12 to 26 years-old, over 65 years-old, FAI members & National Trust members, Touring Club Italiano (TCI), GIST (Gruppo Italiano Stampa Turistica) members
Contacts:
Website: http://www.scalacontarinidelbovolo.com/it/
E-mail: cultura@fondazioneveneziaservizi.it
Phone: +39 041 2702464
How to get there: Ferry boat stop "Rialto"
