Museums in Venice

Venice is a wonderland for museum buffs and exhibitions range from modern art to renaissance masterpieces. Here’s a list of the nine public museums in Venice included in the Venice Museum Pass.

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It can be hard work to see them all during a short stay in Venice apartments, but here’s a list of nine public museums included in a MUVE Museum Pass plus the private Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Hopefully it will make it easier to prioritise.

Palazzo Ducale
The Doges’ Palace on Piazzo San Marco stands out as the emblem of Venice. This was where the succession of the republic’s chief magistrates resided until 1797, when Napoleon conquered the city. Visitors to the palace will see the Doges luxurious apartments with carved, gilded ceilings, impressive court yards and magnificent statues and to admire the paintings of renaissance masters like Tiziano, Tiepolo and Tintoretto. Another part of the Palace was used as a prison and can be accessed via the Bridge of Sighs. You can also skip the lines and book a 75 minute guided walk through secret passageways to the most famous chambers.

Museo Correr
Also in San Marco’s Square Museo Correr displays art and the history of Venice. The collection was donated to the city in 1830 by a nobleman named Teodore Correr who collected all sorts of objects that reflected the history of Venice including rare manuscripts, portraits of Venetian aristocrats, coins, maps and galleys. One section of the museum is dedicated to sculptures and Venetian paintings up to the 16^th century and there is also a contemporary exhibition like the present one focusing on Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt in Venice.

Ca’ Rezzonico
Another grand palace on the right bank of the Grand Canal, Ca’ Rezzonico is dedicated to 18^th century Venice with frescoed ceilings, sumptuous furniture and imaginative 3D trompe d’oeils, but especially the bridal or ‘throne’ room defies description. This was the home of the poet Robert Browning and his painter son. The main attraction of Ca’ Rezzonico is, however, the harmony between the contents and the building. It is almost like visiting an aristocratic Venetian family 250 years ago.

Palazzo Mocenigo
This palace is really four different buildings built for the Mocenigo family, seven of whom were doges of Venice. The museum preserves most of the original furnishings and decorations, but there is also a museum dedicated to the history of textiles and costumes.

Ca’ Pesaro
Baroque palace transformed into a museum of modern Italian art with a collection comprising works by such artists as  Boccioni, Casorati, Gino Rossi and Arturo Martini and a programme of temporary exhibitions.

Palazzo Fortuny
The former home, studio and showroom of Mariano Fortuny who was a painter, photographer, lightening engineers and fashion designer at the beginning of the last century. The museum houses his collection of paintings, textiles, light and photography along with temporary exhibitions.

Museo del Vetro
On the island Murano just north of Venice the Glass Museum presents the history of glass from the first Egyptian samples to crystalline and enamelled glass, glass with gold threads, multicoloured glass, milk glass, and imitation gemstones made of glass.

Museo del Merletto
The Burano island has proud traditions for lace making and the local museum shows  examples of different kinds of needle lace used for pillow cases, table cloths, fingerless gloves and fans. In the mornings lace makers demonstrate their skills and techniques.

Museo di Storia Naturale
Placed in palazzo Fontego dei Truchi, the natural history museum of Venice contains sections dedicated to palaeontology and the Venetian lagoon. Among the exhibits are a virtually intact 110 million years old Ouranosaurus, several mammoth fossils, the partial skeleton of a pre-historic crocodile, the Sarcosuchus imperator, which is over 12 metres in length and would have weighed more than eight tons.

The ground floor houses a sea water aquarium reproducing the environment of the reefs which divide the Venetian lagoon from the Adriatic and providing provides an insight into the diversity of species found there.

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection
One of the most important museums in Italy for European and American art of the first half of the 20th century. The collection embraces cubism, surrealism and abstract expressionism presented in works by Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Alexander Calder. It is located in Peggy Guggenheim’s former home in palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal.

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is the only museum mentioned here which is not included in the MUVE Museum Pass that gives entry to all the public museums in Venice.

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