Republic of Venice

The Venetian Republic was a patron in its own right for over a thousand years, and the distinction matters: much of what it built was commissioned by the state or by its institutions rather than by a ruling family. The doge was an elected official with carefully limited power, and the great commissions came from the Senate, the Procurators of St Mark's and the confraternities.

That shows in the buildings. Venice has comparatively few private palaces built to glorify a dynasty and a great many structures built for a public function — a mint, a customs house, a library, a granary, the scuole that combined charity with display. The Republic also maintained the Arsenal, for centuries the largest industrial complex in Europe.

It ended abruptly in 1797, when Napoleon's advance caused the last Great Council to vote itself out of existence. Many of the buildings it commissioned are now museums, which is why a state appears in this list alongside people.