Palazzo Testa is a small

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

palace in

Venice, Italy Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are linked by 438 bridge ...

, located in the

Cannaregio Cannaregio () is the northernmost of the six historic ''sestieri of Venice''. It is the second largest ''sestiere'' by land area and the largest by population, with 13,169 people . Isola di San Michele, the historic cemetery island, is associate ...

district and overlooking the Canale di Cannaregio.

History

The palazzo was built in the 15th century but underwent numerous alterations between the 16th and 19th centuries. The building belonged at least from 1531 to 1748 to the ancient patrician Testa family. After the death of the last heir, Uberto Testa, the building passed to Count Alessandro di

Marsciano Marsciano is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Perugia in the Italian region Umbria, located about 25 km south of Perugia. Marsciano borders the following municipalities: Collazzone, Deruta, Fratta Todina, Perugia, Piegaro, ...

. The palazzo remained the property of this family until 1808.

Architecture

The small façade is of the late

Gothic style Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque ar ...

. It consists of three floors with a

noble floor (Italian language, Italian for "noble floor" or "noble level", also sometimes referred to by the corresponding French term, ) is the architectural term for the principal floor of a ''palazzo''. This floor contains the main reception and bedro ...

on top. The noble floor is decorated with a

quadrifora Quadrifora is a type of four-light window. It appears in towers and Belfry (architecture), belfries on top floors, where it is necessary to lighten the structure with wider openings. The quadrifora can also be a group closely set windows. Overvi ...

supported by a balcony. The balcony is decorated with lion heads. The quadrifora is flanked by a pair of

lancet windows A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...

on each side. The

mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft with non-sloped ...

floor also had a four-light window in the center, but, after a renovation in the 19th century, the side parts were closed up, with the central parts still remaining.

References

{{coord, 45.4445, 12.3232, type:landmark_region:IT, display=title Houses completed in the 15th century Testa Gothic architecture in Venice