10 Historic Sites in Veneto That You Shouldn't Miss

The Scuola Grande di San Rocco is a lay confraternity founded in 1478. The popularity of the cult of St. Roch, whose remains had been in the possession of the brotherhood since 1485, contributed to the latter’s rapid expansion to the extent of it becoming the richest Scuola of the city. At that point it was decided to build a new monumental headquarters and engage Tintoretto to decorate it with his most celebrated pictorial cycle, illustrating episodes from the New and Old Testaments. It is the only one of the historic Scuole Grandi to have survived the fall of the republic. It is a unique site, where over 60 paintings are preserved in their original setting in a building that has hardly undergone any alteration since its construction. The confraternity is still active today, carrying out its traditional charitable duties as well as looking after its extraordinary artistic patrimony.

This historic bridge connects the Doge's Palace with its prisons and was named for the condemned prisoners who crossed it to meet their executioners.

A masterpiece of Gothic architecture, the building and its sculptural decoration date from various periods. The interior, with works by artists such as Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, A.Vittoria and Tiepolo, includes vast council chambers, superbly decorated residential apartments, and austere prison cells. Along the facades of the Palace run loggias that overlook St. Mark’s Square and the lagoon. The combined entrance ticket to the St. Mark’s Square Museums grants access to the Doge’s Palace, Museo Correr, Museo Archeologico Nazionale and Monumental Rooms of Biblioteca Marciana.

Originally built as a lighthouse to assist navigation in the lagoon, visitors can be whisked by elevator to the top of St. Mark's Campanile or bell tower to savor incredible views of Venice, the lagoon and the Alps in the distance.

This satellite gallery of the famous Guggenheim in New York occupies the 17th-century Customs House in Venice, featuring modern and contemporary works of art.

It's no wonder that this is one of the most historic and picturesque squares in Italy: in antiquity, it served as a Roman forum; today, it contains many historic buildings, sculptures with a popular and colorful market overflowing with fresh fruits and vegetables.

The Palladian Basilica is a public building facing onto the Piazza dei Signori. Its name is linked to Andrea Palladio, who redesigned it, adding the famous loggias with serliana openings in white marble to the existing Gothic building. The building on which Palladio worked was the Palazzo della Ragione, built in Gothic style in the mid-fifteenth century. The upper floor is entirely taken up by an enormous hall with no intermediate supports, where the Council of the Four Hundred met. The copper-lined, inverted ship’s-hull roof was inspired by that of the Palazzo della Ragione in Padua. The Gothic facade was originally clad with diamonds of red and straw yellow Verona marble, which are still visible behind Palladio’s addition. A loggia surrounding the building was commissioned after its completion, but continually delayed due to various structural difficulties and the nature of the ground beneath. At the beginning of the sixteenth century the double order of porticoes and loggias, though not complete, collapsed. The Council called on many leading architects of the time to resolve the difficult problem of its reconstruction. They included Jacopo Sansovino, Sebastiano Serlio and Giulio Romano. The project was awarded to Andrea Palladio (1508-80) in 1549, following a competition, and he worked on it for the rest of his life. It was completed posthumously in 1614. The reconstructed building was called a basilica by Palladio himself, who had been inspired by the model of the Roman basilica for civic use. The building has three independent exhibition spaces that are used to host architecture and art exhibitions of international renown.

Built in the first century AD, this is one of the best conserved Roman amphitheatres, whose seating area is made up of 44 levels and can hold up to 22,000 spectators.