Explore Venice

Fondazione Prada uses Ca' Corner della Regina, a palace on the Grand Canal in Santa Croce, as its Venice venue for temporary exhibitions of contemporary art. The palace stands where Caterina Cornaro, later Queen of Cyprus, was born in 1454; it was rebuilt in 1724 by Domenico Rossi and has frescoes of her life on the main floor.

Ca' Pesaro is a Baroque marble palace on the Grand Canal, designed by Baldassare Longhena in the mid-17th century and completed by Gian Antonio Gaspari in 1710. It houses the International Gallery of Modern Art, built up largely from works bought at the early Venice Biennales, and on its top floor the Museum of Oriental Art.

The Rialto Bridge is the oldest of the four bridges across the Grand Canal, linking the San Marco and San Polo districts. The present single-span stone bridge was designed by Antonio da Ponte and built in 1588–1591, replacing earlier wooden bridges. Two ramps lined with rows of shops lead up to a central portico.

The Natural History Museum of Venice occupies the Fondaco dei Turchi, a 13th-century Veneto-Byzantine palace on the Grand Canal that served as the trading house of Turkish merchants from 1621 to 1838. A museum since 1923, it shows fossils, including the skeleton of the dinosaur Ouranosaurus, whale skeletons and zoological and ethnographic collections.

The Fortuny Museum occupies Palazzo Pesaro degli Orfei, a 15th-century Gothic palace on Campo San Beneto where the Spanish-born artist Mariano Fortuny set up his studio in 1898 and later his home and textile workshop. Its rooms show his paintings, printed silks and velvets, lamps and stage designs; the palace was given to the city in 1956.

The House of Carlo Goldoni is the Gothic Palazzo Centani in San Polo, where the playwright Carlo Goldoni was born in 1707. A courtyard with a 15th-century open staircase and a carved well-head leads to a small museum on his life and theatre, with a reconstructed 18th-century puppet theatre, and to a library of theatre studies.

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari is a large brick Gothic church of the Franciscans in the San Polo district, built over the 14th and 15th centuries and consecrated in 1492. Inside are Titian's Assumption of the Virgin on the high altar and his Pesaro Madonna, a carved monks' choir, and the monuments to several doges, Titian and Canova.

Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo is a 15th-century palace near Campo Manin, known for its external spiral staircase, the Scala Contarini del Bovolo, added around 1499. Its 80 steps wind up inside a 26-metre cylindrical tower of brick and Istrian stone, open in arcades, to a loggia with a view over the roofs of Venice.

The Da Vinci Interactive Museum fills the rooms of the Scoletta di San Rocco, built in 1494 as the first seat of the Confraternity of San Rocco beside the later Scuola Grande. Visitors can work full-size models of Leonardo da Vinci's machines, from war machines to flying machines, with explanations in several languages.

The Scuola Grande di San Rocco is the seat of a lay confraternity founded in 1478, in a marble Renaissance building in the San Polo district completed in 1560. Its halls are covered with paintings by Tintoretto and his workshop, made between 1564 and 1587, including the large Crucifixion in the Sala dell'Albergo.

Teatro La Fenice is the opera house of Venice on Campo San Fantin, designed by Giannantonio Selva and opened in 1792. Its name, 'the phoenix', fits a house rebuilt after fires in 1836 and 1996; operas by Rossini, Bellini and Verdi had their premieres here. Daytime visits lead through the gilded auditorium, the foyers and an exhibition on Maria Callas.

The Jewish Museum of Venice was set up in 1954 by the Jewish Community beside the two oldest synagogues on Campo del Ghetto Nuovo, in the Ghetto established in 1516. Its exhibition rooms are closed for a restoration that will double their size; meanwhile the ticket office runs guided visits to the Ghetto's historic synagogues.

Palazzo Grassi is a classical palace on the Grand Canal beside Campo San Samuele, designed by Giorgio Massari for the Grassi family and built between 1748 and 1772. Bought by François Pinault in 2005 and refitted by Tadao Ando, it holds temporary exhibitions of contemporary art from the Pinault Collection.

The Museum of Music is housed in the deconsecrated church of San Maurizio, rebuilt between 1795 and 1806 to a Neoclassical design by Giannantonio Selva, the architect of La Fenice. Set up by the collector Artemio Versari and the ensemble Interpreti Veneziani, it shows string instruments by makers such as Amati, Guadagnini and Goffriller, around Antonio Vivaldi and his time.

The Museo Correr is the civic museum of Venetian art and history on St Mark's Square, in the Napoleonic Wing and the Procuratie Nuove. It grew from the collection Teodoro Correr left to the city in 1830, and shows sculptures by Antonio Canova, the Neoclassical rooms of the former royal palace, and paintings by Giovanni Bellini and Carpaccio.

St Mark's Clocktower is an early Renaissance tower on the north side of Piazza San Marco, built in the 1490s above the archway into the Merceria. Its blue and gold clock face shows the hours, the sun's place in the zodiac and the phases of the moon, and two bronze figures strike the bell on the roof. The interior is seen on guided tours by booking.

St Mark's Square is the main square of Venice, enclosed by St Mark's Basilica, the arcaded Procuratie Vecchie and Procuratie Nuove and, at its western end, the Napoleonic Wing. With the Piazzetta that opens to the lagoon beside the Doge's Palace, it forms the religious and political centre of the city, overlooked by the 98.6-metre campanile.

Santi Giovanni e Paolo, known in Venetian as San Zanipolo, is a Gothic brick basilica of the Dominicans in the Castello district, completed in 1430. From the 15th century the funerals of the doges were held here, and twenty-five doges are buried inside. Verrocchio's equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni stands in the square beside it.

Palazzo Pisani is a patrician palace beside Campo Santo Stefano, begun in 1614 for the Pisani family and enlarged into the 18th century around two courtyards with colonnaded loggias. Owned by the city, it houses the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory of Music. Guided tours lead through its halls and courtyards up to a rooftop terrace over the city.

St Mark's Campanile is the 98.6-metre bell tower of St Mark's Basilica, standing on its own in Piazza San Marco. The present tower is a reconstruction completed in 1912 after the original collapsed in 1902; a lift goes up to the belfry, which looks out over the city and the lagoon.