Museo Correr

The Museo Correr occupies the west side of Piazza San Marco in Venice, Veneto, Italy, in the Procuratie Nuove and the Napoleonic Wing. The building was constructed in the 16th and early 17th centuries to designs associated with Vincenzo Scamozzi and Jacopo Sansovino, then converted after 1807 into a royal palace, first for Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy and later for the Habsburg rulers. The museum itself was founded on the collection of the Venetian nobleman Teodoro Correr, who died in 1830 and left his books, paintings, coins and curiosities to the city. It moved to the piazza in 1922. The route is chronological and thematic. It begins with the neoclassical rooms, including the ballroom and the apartments used by Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, then moves through the history of Venice, with maps, flags, naval models, coins and the ceremonial objects of the doge. The picture gallery holds Venetian painting from the 14th to 16th centuries, with works by Paolo Veneziano, Jacopo Bellini, Antonello da Messina, Carpaccio's Two Venetian Ladies and Cosme Tura. The Sculpture rooms display work by Antonio Canova, including Orpheus and Eurydice. The Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana's monumental rooms upstairs and the archaeological museum are reached through the same ticket. The museum is managed by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, and its ticket is a combined one with the Doge's Palace and other civic museums. Restoration works over recent decades have refreshed the imperial apartments and the picture galleries, and some sections rotate or close for conservation.