FONDACO III

1797 – 1937

#FondacoHeritage

The decline of the Venetian maritime trade during the seventeenth century, as a result of changes in international trade routes and of the acquired supremacy of the Atlantic powers, led to the loss of the political and economic importance that the Serenissima had branded in previous centuries. With the fall of the Republic in 1797, the Napoleonic domination (1805-1814) and then the Austrian domination, the building fell to a state of disrepair. When the German merchants finally left the Fondaco around 1806, the surviving furnishings and paintings were dispersed. In the building, Napoleon set up the “land customs”, while the Austrians placed tax and military offices. The lions on the turrets, razed to the ground in 1836, were destroyed, and the same fate befell the one placed above the entrance to the Calle del Fontego, replaced only in 1884. After 1840 the loggias of the courtyard were sealed by windows, and a skylight supported by a metal frame was built towards the end of the century. A bust was placed at the centre of the court. With the birth of the Kingdom of Italy, the building was used by the Finance Authority, which was gradually replaced by the Post and Telegraph offices which took up part of the space at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1925 it became the property of the Ministry of Communications. New consolidation works were carried out between 1929 and 1933.