Palazzo Reale, percorso delle Sale Reali: Enfilade dallo Studio dell'Imperatore d'Austria Francesco Giuseppe Foto: Massimo Listri ©

(Venice, Italy) For years, the doorway to Emperor Franz Joseph's rooms in the Royal Apartments inside the Correr Museum in Venice had been blocked by a red velvet rope. Long after Empress Sissi's rooms had been beautifully restored back in 2012, when you arrived at the antechamber that connected the two sections of the palace, you were greeted by the elegant red barrier. The door was open, but all you got was a tempting peek down a long corridor of different doorways that promised a wonderland if you could just get through the looking glass.

Finally, on July 15, 2022 -- after restoration work that had begun back in 2000, more two decades before -- 20 rooms of Venice's Royal Palace are open to the public. Now you can wander through the rooms and dream about times long ago when Venice had been under Austrian rule and the young sovereigns arrived for a 38-day visit between November 1856 and January 1857. Empress Sissi would go on to live in Venice without Emperor Franz Joseph for another seven months between October 1861 and May 1862.

Arrival of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth of Austria by Ippolito Caffi (c.1856)

Actually, the Royal Palace was originally created by Napoleon after the French conquered Venice in 1797. The palace would become the residence of the three successive dynasties that ruled Venice after the fall of the Serenissma Republic from the early 19th century to the 1920s: 

• The House of Bonaparte
• The House of Hapsburg
• The House of Savoy

When a visiting emperor or empress or king or queen came to town, the Royal Palace is where they lived. Each monarch had their own taste and style. The restorations cover a potpourri of time periods and furnishings. I thought it was going to be Empress Sissi on one side and Emperor Franz Joseph on the other, but that is not how the new rooms are arranged.

Studio of Emperor Franz Joseph - Photo: Massimo Listri©

Instead we hop from Emperor Franz Joseph to his younger brother Archduke Maximilian (the Emperor of Mexico) and his wife Carlotta of Hapsburg with elements of the Napoleonic period mixed in. When King Umberto and Queen Margherita stayed in Venice to inaugurate the very first Biennale in 1895 -- the first International Art Exhibition of the City of Venice -- they stayed in the Royal Apartments; there is one room dominated by one of Margherita's impressive dresses.

The renovated rooms are all decorated and adorned with tapestries reproduced in the original designs. Also, original furniture from the Royal Palace has been tracked down and returned to the palace, which may account for the colorful nature of the itinerary -- I would imagine that was not easy gathering the beautiful furnishings from some of the ancestor's hands. 

Royal Gardens & St. Mark's Basin seen from Royal Apartments - Photo: Cat Bauer

The Royal Apartments occupy the north side of the piano nobile of the Procuratie Nuove, overlooking the Royal Gardens, which were also recently restored, and Saint Mark's Basin. The rooms run parallel to the Museo Correr exhibition rooms, which look over Piazza San Marco.

Moorish Room - Photo: Cat Bauer

 
My favorite room was the exotic Moorish Room, commissioned by Archduke Maximilian after two journeys to the Islamic world, first to Turkey in 1850 and the second to Egypt five years later. The details of the recreations of the sofas and the complex patterns on the ceiling and the walls illustrates the care and attention to detail that went into the restoration (and probably why it took so long).

The restoration was directed by the Fopndazione Musei Civici di Venezia and the Venice City Council, supported by the Superintendency, with the invaluable contribution of the French Committee for the Preservation of Venice, and patrons from around the entire world. There are discreet brass plaques in each room detailing who sponsored the restoration. 

You can only visit the new itinerary of the Royal Rooms with a reservation and a special guide, limited to groups of ten people. The tours are in Italian, English and French. Go to the Correr Museum for more information.

Also, you can see the photo exhibition of Massimo Listri, known for capturing the souls of places, through October 22.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog