Sale Monumentali della Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana

Ancient seat of the Library of the Republic of Venice (now the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana) incurred following the donation of the greek Cardinal Bessarion who, in 1468, donated to the Serenissima his collection of about 1.000 mostly Greek and Latin manuscripts. The building, in a classic style of Jacopo Sansovino, was built between 1537 and 1553. The hall is decorated with paintings by Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and other artists of the Renaissance, while in the Antechamber, it is adorned with a painting by Titian, was housed, at the end of the sixteenth century, the Statuary Museum of the Republic. Its two rooms, now permanently open to the public, are used for exhibitions and are part of the itinerary of the Museums of St. Mark's Square (entrance from the Correr Museum), while the reading rooms are located in the adjacent building of the Mint, also built by Sansovino.