Venice 2025
One of the famous exterior facades of the Doge’s Palace (Palazzo Ducale).
Classic architecture usually dictates that the heaviest, most solid masses sit at the bottom of a building to signify stability. The Doge's Palace famously flips this script. The lower tiers are open, airy Gothic arcades, while the massive, windowless block of the grand council chambers sits directly on top of them.
The Diamond Pattern (Goffrato): What looks like simple brick from a distance is actually a highly sophisticated, interlocking geometric pattern of pink Verona marble and white Istrian stone.
The Loggia and Pinnacles: Along the bottom run the Venetian Gothic pointed arches, supported by slender columns with intricately carved capitals. Along the very top skyline, the building is crowned with delicate, flame-like white marble pinnacles (crenellations), giving the massive structure a weightless, lace-like finish against the sky.
The Renaissance Windows: The large, stately windows cut into the geometric facade feature classic Renaissance pediments and small stone balustrades, a striking contrast to the purely Gothic elements below and above them.
(notes provided by Google Gemini, the AI arm of Google)
Ezio was able to scale that building in Assassin's Creed II. 😆 Such a cool historical building location in real life. Such rich history.
