See Torture Up Close in Venice: From Casanova to the Doge’s Palace

See Torture Up Close in Venice: Palazzo Zaguri & Doge’s Palace

SEE TORTURE UP CLOSE

Do you think travel is torture? Or maybe something else is torturous…like taxes. If so, you’ve gotta see
the authentic instruments of torture that were once used between the 15 th and 18 th centuries.
Head to Venice, Italy to see the methods of torture on display at Palazzo Zaguri located at Campo San
Maurizio, 2668, 30124 Venezia VE.

This Venetian Gothic palace built prior to 1353 was inhabited by powerful aristocrats, one being Pietro I
Antonio (1733-1806), a pal of the infamous Giacomo Casanova. Casanova was a con man using aliases
and costumes to get by and get upclose to women. He was twice banished from Venice and once
escaped from Venice’s infamous prison. His follies included travel to Russia where he presented the idea
of a lottery to Catherine the Great. She turned him down. While it is said that A Gentleman Never Tells,
Casanova had a reputation of telling all…in detail.

Centuries later, Palazzo Zaguri was home to a girls’ school and city offices before being abandoned. It is
now owned by a private real estate fund and managed by Venice Exhibition, known for its edgy museum
displays, torture among them.

Continue on your tour of torture to Doge’s Palace, the legacy of Venetian justice and epicenter of
power, punishment and jail cells. Getting there, be sure to cross the famous Bridge of Sighs where
legend has it that prisoners could peer out the small windows of their cells just before their fate was
determined by a judge.