Description
Away from the usual crowds, the Scala Contarini del Bovolo rewards anyone who goes looking for it. With a Scala Contarini del Bovolo ticket you enter a palace from the 1300s in late Gothic style, Palazzo Contarini di San Paternian, and head for the spiral staircase that gives the place its name. The "bovolo" of its name is Venetian for spiral staircase.
Pietro Contarini had the staircase built in 1499 to embellish the palace. Eighty monolithic steps wind counterclockwise inside a cylindrical tower 26 metres tall, made of Istrian stone and exposed brick. At the top is the Belvedere terrace, where the view takes in the whole city and the lagoon beyond.
- Entry to the staircase and the terrace
- Access to two halls of the palace, where fragments of frescoes remain
- The story of the building, which became a lodging-house in the 19th century
One of its lodgers was the astronomer Ernst Wilhelm Tempel, a German who found the comet C/1859 and the Merope Nebula in the Pleiades while he lived here.
The visit is self-guided, with no guided tour included, and it is not suitable for wheelchair users or people with mobility impairments. After buying, you exchange your ticket at the ticket office on site, and it is worth checking the official website for any change to opening hours before you go.