Photo: Haupt and Binder
Updated February 2025
From the street, one would never guess that a magnificent narrative of Venetian history, art, and culture was hidden behind centuries-old plaster walls and a set of wooden doors marked 3201.
Pass through the entrance, and you step back centuries into the Palazzo Cappello Malipiero Barnabò, the Countess Anna Barnabò’s sumptuous antique-filled palace with verdant gardens spilling onto Venice’s Grand Canal at Campo San Samuele. Not normally open to the public, I got a taste of that life on a private tour of this secret Venetian palace led by local guide Cristina Gregorin of Slow Venice.
A Palace Commissioned in the Byzantine Style
Originally built between the 10th and 11th centuries as the Cà Grande of Saint Samuel by the Soranzo family, the palazzo has withstood several subsequent additions and modifications by the Cappello family, followed later by the Malipieros. Purchased in the late 19th century by its current owners, the Barnabòs, the palace underwent a significant renovation in 1951, restoring it to its eighteenth-century grandeur.
Palazzo Cappello Malipiero Barnabò became home to the countess when she married into the venerable and influential Venice family more than 30 years ago. Anna Barnabò occupies the palace’s third floor, an expansive space with an enormous drawing room with a massive Murano glass chandelier hanging from its frescoed ceiling.
Dripping crystals refracted the afternoon sunlight, which poured through the canal-facing Venetian Byzantine arched windows, casting shadows around the room.
Palace Frescoes and Ornate Murano Chandeliers
We entered the adjacent library from the drawing room, where the countess reads and enjoys her favorite television shows. The television seemed out of place, surrounded by such antique decor, including another luminescent Murano chandelier. The palazzo’s dining room was not impressively large (am I jaded already?), yet it contained several important antique pieces, including the ceramic Buddha below, whose head rocked back and forth when you tapped his hand.
I first saw the Palazzo gardens below through the windows in a long hallway connecting the drawing room to the dining room.
Centuries-old antiques and fabulous artifacts aside, the real magic began as I descended those ancient stairs and passed through the courtyard into the garden.
Visitors access the gardens through a massive set of elegant doors with a leaded glass transom emblazoned with a decorative scrolled Barnabò “B” monogram.
Created at the end of the eighteenth century, Palazzo Malipiero’s gardens occupy a large parcel on the Campo San Samuele. The property sits beside French business icon and art collector François Pinault’s Palazzo Grassi, a contemporary art exhibition space I visited last summer during the Venice Biennale. A central walkway between two symmetrical hedge-bordered ornamental gardens forms a straight site line from the back of the palazzo’s garden to the canal.
A Conversation With the Contessa About Life, Love, and Gardening
When I spoke privately with the elegant countess about the gardens, I learned she had designed them herself and that they were one of her prized personal endeavors.
A Self-Taught Garden Designer
When she first became the lady of the house, the countess knew very little about gardening. This did not stop the adventurous former correspondent for the European press. Her keen interest in history, art, and color led her to learn all she needed to design the gardens, now featured in numerous books such as The Gardens of Venice and Veneto, photographed by Alex Ramsay.
Under her direction, a gardener now maintains the lush grounds where the family hosts parties and elegant dinners, sometimes for their neighbor Pinault’s art openings.
A Well-Traveled Life: From Paris to Rome to Venice
As we walked the gardens together, the contessa described her colorful and well-traveled life before and after marrying the late Count Barnabò; first, as a child living with her family in Paris, then later as a journalist living in Rome.
On a stroll alongside the flower beds, she pointed out with evident pride which flowers would soon bloom: pink camellias and little white roses on one side, blue irises, and soft pink baby roses that would eventually line the garden’s canal frontage. Walls of hydrangeas were beginning to sprout little buds, while jasmine would scent the air soon after my departure. And although I’d seen massive amounts of gorgeous wisteria everywhere in Venice, somehow seeing its rich hue against the backdrop of the gardens’ terra cotta walls…well, sigh.
A Wedding Among the Blooms
In addition to numerous perfectly placed sculptures, an ample water well sculpted with the family coat-of-arms was moved from the courtyard to the garden for the wedding, uniting the Cappello and the Malipiero families.
The countess motioned toward the water where Elisabetta, the bride, and Caterino, the groom, had taken their vows centuries ago, overlooking the Grand Canal. I could almost hear the music and see the guests in their festive attire celebrating the newlyweds in what must have been one hell of a garden wedding.
How to Stay at Palazzo Malpieri
Summon your inner royalty with a stay in The Granda Sweet Suites, located on the first floor of the Palazzo Malipiero, with views of the Grand Canal and the palace gardens. The rooms were formerly frequented by Giacomo Casanova, best known as one of history’s most famous womanizers. The palazzo’s third owner, the Venetian senator Alvise Gasparo Malipiero, played a substantial role in shaping Casanova’s life.
Photo: Booking.com
The suites may not be as palatial as the main property, but staying there puts guests in the palace’s prime location at Campo San Samuele, less than a mile from the Piazza San Marco and the Doge’s Palace. While in Venice, consider a tour of two other historic palaces and their hidden gardens in the Dorsoduro district, Nani Bernardo Palace and Ca’ Zenobio Palace. Top off the tour at a local bar with a tasting of cichetti, delicious Venetian appetizers.
Photo: Booking.com
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Next up: My reports from Milan Design Week, Salone del Mobile and FuoriSalone–including a day at Ventura Lambrate–-and much more!
Nota Bene: My trip to Venice was part of the Modenus BlogTour, made possible by the following sponsors: Modenus, BLANCO, Clever Storage by Kessenbömer, Dekton by Cosentino, National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA), and Gessi. All opinions expressed herein are uniquely mine and not indicative of any sponsor opinions or positions. Unless otherwise noted, all images by Robin Plaskoff Horton for Urban Gardens.
