Best seen from a gondola on the Grand Canal, this aristocratic waterside mansion gets its name from the exquisite gilt and polychrome embellishments that once graced its façade but which have long since faded. Built for the public prosecutor Marino Contarini, the palazzo bears the unmistakable signature of the pair of sculptor-architects behind the Doge’s Palace and the Porta della Carta.

The Ca’d’Oro is a uniquely Venetian design, blending Gothic elements with Byzantine and Arabic influences derived form the city’s trade links with Constantinople, Moorish Spain, and the Islamic east. Its famous façade gives the visual impression of two houses in one.

The  recessed ground-floor colonnaded loggia leading directly form the pier into the entrance hall of the palazzo, the enclosed Moorish-style balconies supporting rows of quatrefoil stonework tracery on interlinking arcades and open arches, and the lacy parapet with exotic crestings all lend the palace an air of wistful romance.