BRINGING LIGHT INTO AN OLD PALACE: Palazzo Soranzo

 

Again the second floor of this construction has undergone several transformations to accommodate numerous families for almost 6 centuries. Added in the mid-15^th century (some previous roof beams are still incorporated into the masonry) and covered with a ceiling able to carry at least 1 other storey, its layout is typical of late “Gothic” palaces: an L-shaped main hall (grey) with rooms on each side of the longer part of the L.

At the end of the 18^thcentury a third storey was added above the main façade and the Gothic window that illuminated the L-shaped hall of the second floor was replaced by a “modern” but smaller, arched window. Probably it was intended that the interior of this floor would be transformed too,  but the Napoleonic wars must have stopped construction.

In 1804, after the overthrow of the Venetian Republic, a certain Comarolo, who had rented  the building from the Giustinian family, bought it and used old letters and other papers from his father to fill the cracks in the beams of the ceiling of the hall before repainting them grey.

 

The discovery of these documents enabled a reconstruction of the floor’s history, showing  that in the early 19^th century  the hall was still L-shaped and only in the mid-19^th century, after new owners bought the construction, were ceilings lowered and partition walls erected to create two drawing rooms along the main façade and a long, badly illuminated  corridor in what was formerly the longer part of the L.

 

Traces on the floor, partially demolished and reconstructed plaster ceilings and bricked-up windows show that the position of these partition walls changed considerably with each generation of new owners.

The aim of the present restoration was to reopen the L-shaped main hall together with  the bricked-up windows to allow light once again to enter the 25 m-deep living area.

 

 

The kitchen dating from the 1950s, situated in the rear of the apartment, was kept as a laundry-room and  a new kitchen was created in place of a former bathroom: a former bedroom thus became a dining room with access to the spacious 80m² terrace.