The Doge's Palace is a gothic palace in Venice. In Italian it is called the Palazzo Ducale di Venezia. The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice.
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Its two most visible facades look towards the Venetian Lagoon and St Mark's Square, or rather the Piazzetta. The use of arcading in the lower stories produces an interesting "gravity-defying" effect. There is also effective use of colour contrasts (unfortunately, the patterns are not well shown in the illustrative photographs accompanying this article...from a distance the colours blur).
The current palace was largely constructed from 1309 to 1424, designed perhaps by Filippo Calendario. It replaced earlier fortified buildings of which relatively little is known. Giovanni and Bartolomeo Bon created the Porta della Carta in 1442, a monumental late-gothic gate on the Piazzetta side of the palace. This gate leads to a central courtyard.
The palace was badly damaged by fire in 1574. In the subsequent rebuilding work it was decided to respect the original gothic style, despite the submission of a neo-classical alternative design by Palladio. However, there are some classical features, for example since the sixteenth century the palace has been linked to the prison by the Bridge of Sighs.
As well as being the ducal residence, the palace housed political institutions of the Republic of Venice until the Napoleonic occupation of the city. Venice was ruled by an aristocratic elite, but there was a facility for citizens to submit written complaints at what was known as the Bussola chamber.
The building is preserved as a museum. Inside the visitor can see paintings by Tintoretto and Veronese, which glorify the Venetian state. In 2007 there was a temporary exhibition on "Venice and Islam".
There are a number of nineteenth-century imitations of the palace's architecture in the United Kingdom, eg. the Wool Exchange, Bradford, the Wedgwood Institute, Burslem and Templeton's Carpet Factory in Glasgow. These revivals of Venetian Gothic were influenced by the theories of John Ruskin, author of the three-volume The Stones of Venice, which appeared in the 1850s.
The Montauk Club in Park Slope, Brooklyn imitates elements of the palace's architecture. It was built in 1889 and the architect is usually said to have been inspired by another Venetian Gothic palace, the Ca' d'Oro.
Along with other Venetian landmarks, the palace is imitated in "The Venetian" resort, Las Vegas, USA.
The facade of the building is also replicated at the Italian showcase in Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.
