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The Doge’s Palace
A jewel of Gothic art, the Doge's Palace is a giant edifice of layered structural and ornamental elements: centuries-old foundations, fourteenth/fifteenth-esque century timings, renaissance-style cupolas and sumptuous Manneristic imprints. It is formed by three main bodies that have brought in and blended the preceding constructions: the wing facing St. Mark's basin includes the the Great Council Hall and is the oldest part of the building dating all the way back to 1340; the wing facing the square houses the Scrutiny Hall, and dates back to 1424; lastly, the Renaissance wing on the opposite side with the Doge's residence and many government offices was rebuilt between 1483 and 1565.
The public entrance is the Wheat Door (Porta del Frumento), called that because it was next to the Crops Office (Ufficio delle Biade), which opens under the portico of the fourteenth-century facade. The ground floor is home to the Opera Museum.
The path to the upper rooms of the building begins with an extraordinary courtyard and continues to the first floor loggias and a visit through the rooms of the Doge's Apartment on the first floor and the Ministerial Chambers that progress between the second floor and the loggias' floor and conclude with the Armoury and the Prisons.
