Ca' da Mosto
The oldest palace on the Grand Canal — a 13th-century merchant house that has outlasted every empire that passed its door.
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Built as a casa-fondaco, where a merchant lived and traded under the same roof, Ca' da Mosto has been on the Grand Canal since before 1266. Alvise Cadamosto, the Italian explorer who worked with slave traders in Portugal, was born here in 1432. Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II lodged here in both 1769 and 1775. After sitting empty for decades with canal water in the basement, an €11.7 million restoration reopened it as the Venice Venice Hotel in February 2022.
What to look for
- The heptafora on the first floor — a seven-arched window band running across the facade, with the leftmost arch now bricked shut
- High narrow arches and distinctive carved capitals that mark the Venetian-Byzantine period
- Three visibly different floor levels: the 13th-century original, a second storey added in the early 1500s, and a third added in the 1800s
In Cannaregio between Rio dei Santi Apostoli and Palazzo Bollani Erizzo; the full facade is best read from a Grand Canal vaporetto. The building now operates as the Venice Venice Hotel.
Ca' da Mosto is one of 38 sights worth the detour in Venice, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Venice pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Venice
- St Mark's BasilicaThe Doge's private chapel turned war-trophy hall — every marble slab and bronze horse was taken from somewhere else.
- Doge's PalaceGovernment offices, a jail, and the Doge's private rooms — all under one Venetian Gothic roof on the lagoon edge.
- Grand CanalVenice's main street is water — a 3.8 km reverse-S where noble families spent fortunes trying to outshine each other in stone and marble.
- Piazza San MarcoNapoleon called it "the drawing room of Europe" — then stripped it of its four horses and shipped them to Paris.
- Rialto BridgePredicted to collapse before it opened, this single-span stone arch has carried Venice's Grand Canal traffic since 1591.
- Bridge of SighsLord Byron named it in the 19th century — condemned men crossing in 1600 took their last look at Venice through stone-barred windows before the cells closed behind them.