In the Gothic palace Ca' Centanni, in San Polo, is located the house when, the 25th of February 1707, the famous comedy writer Carlo Goldoni was born. The building is a little museum of Goldoni, with a center for theatre studies, a library with a vast documentation of its work and the famous puppets little theatre from Ca’ Grimani ai Servi and already included in the Ca’ Rezzonico’s collections.
The archive and the library gather texts and theatrical studies with original manuscripts (more than 30.000 works). Ca’ Centani, or Centanni, better known as “Carlo Goldoni’s House”, built in the 15th century, is a typical Gothic palace, but still presenting the layout and typical elements of civil Venetian architecture between the end of the 14th and the early 15th century in spite of its several renovations. Particularly interesting is the triptych façade with rich mullioned windows with four lights, the entrance from calle dei Nomboli on the courtyard with the suggestive open stairway supported upon progressively shrinking pointed arches, with a handrail in Istrian stone and simple small cylindrical columns, a little lion and a pine-cone.
Owned by the Rizzi family, the palace was rented to the Zentani or Centani family in the XVI century and it then hosted a thriving artistic and literary Academy. Around the end of the 17th century Carlo Goldoni’s paternal grandfather, Carlo Alessandro, a solicitor with origins in Modena, established himself there. The Goldoni family remained in this house, where Carlo was born on 25 February 1707, until 1719.
In 1914 Aldo Ravà, a noted scholar of 18th century Venice – together with Count Piero Foscari and Commendatore Antonio Pellegrini – bought the palazzo from its owner, Contessa Ida Manassero Camozzo, with the idea of using it to house a museum dedicated to the great playwright and to the history of Italian theatre. The project came to nothing because of the outbreak of war, and then in 1931, Ca’ Centani was bequeathed to the Venice Municipality so it might be restored and become a Goldoni Museum and a center for theatre studies. The war had slow down the restoration works that ended only in 1953. In June 1953 the House was open to public, housing a little Museum of Goldoni and some Venetian theatrical antiques, but focusing above all on the study center and on the constant increase of its library and archive.
Useful information:
Opening hours:
Every day, except on Wednesday, from 10 am to 4 pm
Summer opening (from 1st May to 30 September)
- every Friday and Saturday, from 10 am to 5 pm
Prices:
Full ticket: 5,00 euro
Reduced ticket: 3,50 euro
Other options:
THE MUSEUMS OF 18th CENTURY VENICE
The ticket is valid for: Ca’ Rezzonico – Museum of 18th Century Venice, Carlo Goldoni's House and others (see the info at: https://www.visitmuve.it)
Full ticket: 15,00 euro
Reduced ticket: 12,00 euro
MUSEUM PASS
It includes the access also to all Civic Museum of Venice: Museums of Saint Mark's Square plus others like Ca' Rezzonico, Ca' Pesaro, Mocenigo Palace (check on website: https://www.visitmuve.it)
Museum Pass full: 40,00 euro
Museum Pass reduced: 22,00 euro
Contacts:
Tel.: +39 041 2759325
E-mail: segreteria.casagoldoni@fmcvenezia.it
Tel. booking and ticketing: 848082000 (dall’Italia) / +39 041 42730892 (dall'estero)
E-mail: prenotazionivenezia@coopculture.it
For any further information, please check on website: http://www.carlogoldoni.visitmuve.it
Address: San Polo 2794 - 30125 Venezia
How to get there: water-bus, stop "San Tomà"
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