Procuratie
Encyclopedia
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
. They are also connected to St Mark's Clocktower
St Mark's Clocktower
The Clock Tower in Venice is an early renaissance building on the north side of the Piazza San Marco at the entrance to the Merceria. It comprises a tower, which contains the clock, and lower buildings on each side. It adjoins the eastern end of the Procuratie Vecchie...
. They are historic buildings over arcade
Arcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
s, the last of them completed, to finish off the square, under Napoleon's occupation.
The oldest of the buildings is the Procuratie Vecchie on the north side of the Square, built as a two-storey structure in the twelfth century, to house the office
Office
An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the...
s and apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
s of the procurators of San Marco. They were rebuilt after a fire in the sixteenth century to a three-storey design by Codussi
Mauro Codussi
Mauro Codussi was an Italian architect of the early-Renaissance, active mostly in Venice. The name can also be spelt Coducci. He was one of the first to bring the classical syle of the early renaissance to Venice to replace the prevalent Gothic style.Born near Bergamo about 1440, he is first...
which still betrays something of its Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
roots.
The Procuratie Nuove, on the south side of the Square was begun in 1586 by Vincenzo Scamozzi
Vincenzo Scamozzi
thumb|250px|Portrait of Vincenzo Scamozzi by [[Paolo Veronese]]Vincenzo Scamozzi was a Venetian architect and a writer on architecture, active mainly in Vicenza and Republic of Venice area in the second half of the 16th century...
in a more strictly Classical
Classical architecture
Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...
style and completed by Longhena
Baldassarre Longhena
thumb|250px|Tower of the church [[Santa Maria del Soccorso]], [[Rovigo]].Baldassarre Longhena was an Italian architect, who worked mainly in Venice, where he was one of the greatest exponents of Baroque architecture of the period....
in 1640, designed to afford more space to offices connected with the procurators.
The two buildings originally had wings on the west side of the Square, separated only by a small church. In about 1810, the wings and the church were demolished and replaced by the third building, the Napoleonic Wing of the Procuraties. It was designed by Giuseppe Maria Soli in a Neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
manner.
In the neoclassical interiors
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
so out of character in Venice, were housed the Napoleonic governor after the fall of the Republic, then the Austrian governor, then they were reserved for the use of the kings of Italy
King of Italy
King of Italy is a title adopted by many rulers of the Italian peninsula after the fall of the Roman Empire...
and now the President of the Italian Republic receives in them if he is in Venice. The Procuratie Vecchie and the Procuratie Nuove house old, famous and expensive coffee houses, cheek-by-jowl: Gran Caffè Quadri, Caffè Florian
Caffè Florian
Caffè Florian is a coffee house situated in the Procuratie Nuove of Piazza San Marco, Venice. It was established in 1720, and is a contender for the title of the oldest coffee house in continuous operation ....
, which opened its doors December 29, 1720, and Caffè Lavena
Caffè Lavena
Caffé Lavena is a café in the city of Venice, Italy.It was established in 1750, and was originally called Regina d'Ungheria under the Austro-Hungarian empire...
, in the same premises since the mid-18th century; it was Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's favorite. Above, many a Venetian family whose Ca might be a long gondola ride from the Piazza, kept a small apartment for entertaining called a ridotto, the scenes of paintings of fashionable life by Alessandro Longhi
Alessandro Longhi
Alessandro Longhi was a Venetian portrait painter and printmaker in etching . He is known best for his oil portraits of Venetian nobles of state. His father was the famed genre painter Pietro Longhi. He trained under his father and Giuseppe Nogari...
. The ridotti were extremely fashionable in Venice. As much care and taste went into the furnishings and stuccoed and painted decor of the ridotti as were expended on the palazzi
Palace
A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome. In many parts of Europe, the...
of Venice themselves.
Today, the Napoleonic Wing and part of the Procuratie Nuove house the Correr Museum
Museo Correr
The Museo Correr is the civic museum of Venice, located in the Piazza San Marco, and is entered by the ceremonial stairway in the Ala Napoleonica at the western end of the Piazza opposite the church of San Marco at the other end...
.