Palazzo Dandolo

The Danieli, Venezia, A Four Seasons Hotel (formerly the Hotel Danieli) is a palatial five-star hotel in Venice, Italy. The central wing of the hotel was built as the Palazzo Dandolo at the end of the 14th century, by one of the Dandolo families. CNN cites it as one of the top five "lavish hotels" in the city.

The hotel's main building is the Palazzo Dandolo, close to St. Mark's Square, with a rear facade on the Riva degli Schiavoni's quayside promenade overlooking the Saint Mark's Basin. It adjoins a number of buildings dated to the 14th and 15th century.

The structure was built at the end of the 14th century by the Dandolos, a noble Venetian family. In the 16th century the building was divided into three sections for different members of the family. The richly embellished building, which gives the appearance of a single unit from the exterior, was then the venue of social gatherings and lavish parties.

In the 17th century, ownership was with the Mocenigo and the Bernardo families who continued to hold grand social events. At the wedding celebration of Giustiniana Mocenigo with Lorenzo Giustinian in 1629, Giulio Strozzi's Proserpina Rapita was performed with music by Monteverdi. The two families were still the owners of the building at the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797. After the building had suffered the effects of the city's decline, the Venetian Giuseppe Dal Niel of Friuli, known as Danieli, rented the first floor of the building from 24 October 1822 for his own use and to house his guests. In 1824, appreciating its potential as a centrally located meeting place, he bought the entire building, lavishly restored it and converted it into a hotel which he appropriately renamed "Danieli".

Many notable artists, writers and musicians stayed here, among them Goethe, Wagner, Charles Dickens, Byron, Peggy Guggenheim, Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten, Harrison Ford, and Steven Spielberg. John Ruskin stayed here when he was working on The Stones of Venice. One of the most popular rooms in the hotel is Number 10. It was here that Aurore Dudevant, better known as George Sand, stayed with her lover Alfred de Musset. The biography of George Sand, under the section "Love and Genius", brings out the romantic details of their stay in this room.

Text adapted from “Hotel Danieli” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Palazzo Dandolo ranks #1,388 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #104 of the 452 mapped in Italy. Founded c. 1375, it is older than 56% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 582 atlas entries founded in the 14th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 3,446 times in the last 60 days, more than 78% of the atlas. 36 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Venice, 1 km away. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗