Overlooking the waterfront from the Piazzetta San Marco, the big pink building of the Doge’s Palace, topped with a series of white pinnacles, was the historic seat of the supreme authority of the former Venice Republic for more than 700 years. Along with the Basilica of San Marco at the back and the Piazzetta in the forefront, it creates one of the most popular and fascinating scenes of the city.

The Doge's Palace, also called the Palazzo Ducale, has a long and colourful history, linked to the rise of Venice and its dominance of the southern and central Europe over the centuries. Although the present building dates to the 1300s, the role of the Doge can be traced to the 8th century, when Venice was part of the Byzantine Empire and the Republic of Venice ruled the eastern Mediterranean, including the entire Adriatic Coastline of what is now Croatia and Bosnia, in the 1000-1300s. After that, in the 1400-1500s, it dominated the seas surrounding the present Greece and Turkey and also had control over Cyprus, Crete and the entire Greek archipelago. Apart from that, in Italy, the cities of Vincenza, Treviso, Padua, Verona, Brescia, and Bergamo were all held by Venice.

In 810, Doge Agnello moved the seat of his government from the island of Malamocco to the area of the present Rialto and built the first Ducal Palace. However, no trace of that 9th century palace exists, as it was mostly devoured by a devastating fire in the 10th century. Following the reconstruction works, the new palace was built out of the fortresses, one façade to the Piazzetta, the other overlooking the St. Mark's Basin. However, by the fourteenth century, due to the considerable increase in the number of the Great Council's members, the hierarchy of Venice decided to build a grand palace, befitting the city's new wealth and power. Accordingly, designs for the Doge's Palace were created by Filippo Calendario, who was later executed for treason in 1355. The construction of the new Gothic palace started around 1340, focusing mostly on the side of the building facing the lagoon, in order to hold the meeting chamber for the Great Council, the nearly 500-member governing body, who served as a set of checks and balances for the Doge. Its corners are decorated with beautiful stone sculptures from the 14th century depicting various Biblical scenes.

In 1424, a new wing of the palace, facing the Piazzetta San Marco, with the design that mimicked that of the canal-facing wing, added an arcaded ground floor level topped by a first floor with decorative arched balconies. It wrapped around an interior courtyard, which then and now is the focal point of the palace. With the completion of the internal courtyard side of the wing, the construction of the Porta della Carta was completed in1442.

The Porta della Carta, the main entrance to the court of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice, was created by two brothers, Giovanni and Bartolomeo in the mid-1400s. With its crowning figure of Justice, it is also the link between the Doge’s Palace and St Mark’s Basilica. It is decorated with carved ornamental and allegorical figures, one of which depicts Doge Francesco Foscari kneeling before the Lion of St Mark, signifying that in the Venetian Republic the individual has to bow to the power of the State. The present sculpture is a 19th century copy of the original, which was destroyed by the army of Napoleon, when he attacked Venice in 1797. The meaning of Porta della Carta is Paper Gate or door of paper and it is believed that the name originated from the fact that people waited there with their petitions in hand to be submitted to the members of the Council. The gate was also the place, where important instructions, like the proclamation of a new law, were announced to the public.

The north side of the courtyard ends at the junction between the palace and St Mark’s Basilica, which used to be the Doge’s chapel. Since the mid-16th century, two well-heads stand at the centre of the courtyard. The Great Council decided in 1485, to build a ceremonial staircase within the courtyard and since 1567, the Giants’ Staircase is guarded by the two colossal statues of Mars and Neptune, created by Jacopo d'Antonio Sansovino, representing the power of Venice over the land and sea.

The Doge's Palace or the Palazzo Ducale that took a century and a half to complete and slowly rose up adjacent to the magnificent Basilica San Marco, is considered as one of the most lavish municipal and residential complexes in Europe. Apart from the private residence of the Doge, it contains law courts, administrative offices, open courtyards, grand stairways, ballrooms and even prisons on the ground floor.

Unfortunately, the palace was extensively damaged by a violent fire in 1483, which broke out on the side of the palace overlooking the canal and housing the Doge’s apartments. During the extensive reconstruction, an entire new structure was raised alongside the canal, stretching from the Ponte della Canonica to the Ponte della Paglia. Subsequent fires in 1574 and 1577 also destroyed large portions of the palace, along with many priceless artworks and furnishings. Although, a rapid renovation followed and restored the Gothic-style palace to its pre-fire condition, there are certain classical features attached to it since the 16th century, like the ancient prison, which is linked to the palace by the Bridge of Sighs.

The interior of the palace, full of pomp and grandeur and lavishly decorated with the mix of ornate furnishings and dreamy wall paintings by the famous artists in Venetian art, includes the Doge’s private apartments, the institutional chambers or offices and the judicial chambers. The Institutional Chambers include, among others, the Square Atrium that served as a waiting room, the Council Chamber, the Senate Chamber, the Chamber of the Council of Ten, the Compass Room, named after the large wooden compass surmounted by a statue of Justice and dedicated to the administration of justice, the State Advocacies' Chamber and the Scrigno Room.

Among the Institutional Chambers, the Chamber of the Council of Ten takes its name from the Council of Ten or Consiglio dei Dieci that was set after a conspiracy, when Bajamonte Tiepolo and other noblemen tried to overthrow the institutions of the state in 1310. The Council was the ultra-powerful elite of Venice, who often operated in secret. The carved and gilded ceiling of the Chamber of the Council of Ten is divided into 25 compartments and decorated with the images of divinities and allegories, with the intention to illustrate the power of the Council of Ten that was responsible for punishing the guilty and freeing the innocent.

Another Institutional Chamber that needs to be mentioned is the Scrigno Room. In the 16th century, formal measures were introduced to restrict and protect the status of the aristocracy and marriages between nobles and commoners were forbidden. It was maintained that only the real aristocrats would be eligible to be included as the manpower for the State bureaucracy. The Scrigno Room in the Doge's Palace contained a silver book in a chest or scrigno, which registered all those families that had the requisites of the status of the aristocracy and could also show evidence that they were of ancient Venetian origin.

However, perhaps the most fascinating room in the palace is the Chamber of the Great Council, built between 1340 and 1355 and was the seat of the lower house of the Venetian Parliament. Considered as one of the largest rooms in Europe, it was decorated with all kinds of Venetian iconography, including portraits of the first 76 doges and the spectacular Il Paradiso, the 72.17 feet (22 m) by 22.96 feet (07 m) huge painting by Tintoretto, considered as the world’s longest canvas painting.

In 1540, a compound of the ground floor of the eastern wing was built to be used as the prison and those damp, dark and windowless cells came to be known as Pozzi or the wells. Subsequently, more cells were built in the upper eastern wing in 1591, directly under the lead roof, known as Piob, which used to become hot as furnaces in the summer. Later, in 1614, a corridor, enclosed and covered on all sides, was build that leads over the Bridge of Sighs to link the Doge’s Palace to the new structure to house the New Prisons. The Bridge of Sighs was supposed to refer to the helpless sighs of the prisoners who, while passing from the courtroom to the cell in which they would serve their sentence, took a last look at freedom as they glimpsed the lagoon of Venice and San Giorgio, through the tiny windows. It is interesting to note that the legendary womanizer Giacomo Casanova escaped through the roof re-entered the palace and later escaped through the Porta della Carta. In the mid-16th century, it was decided to build a new structure on the other side of the canal to the side of the palace to house the prisons and ultimately linked to the palace by the Bridge of Sighs, the building was intended to improve the conditions for prisoners with larger and more light-filled and airy cells.

Founded in 1340 and extended and modified from time to time in the following centuries, the Doge’s Palace was converted into a museum in 1923, which is one of the 11 museums run by the Municipal Council Board of Venice.