Hotel Danieli is a historic hotel in Venice, located on the Schiavoni quay, at the corner of the Rio del Vin, not far from St. Mark's Square and the Doge's Palace. It occupies the former Dandolo Palace, the name of a family that gave several doges to the city. The hotel offers a privileged view of the lagoon and San Giorgio Maggiore.

The interior contains works of art, original furniture and Murano glass lamps, tapestries, pink marble columns.

History

The Daneli Hotel in the late 19th century.
The Daneli Hotel in the late 19th century. [CC] credit.

The palace was built in the 15th century, in the so-called 'Venetian-Gothic' style, by the Dandolo family, famous among others for the doge Enrico Dandolo, conqueror of Constantinople, who brought back the famous horses of St. Mark, but it is not known who exactly undertook the construction of the palace, around 1400. The building then passed from one hand to the next, as it was bought by several noble families, most of them doges: the Gritti (1536), the Michiel, the Mocenigo (in 1630, on the occasion of the wedding of Giustiniana Mocenigo and Lorenzo Giustinian, the premiere of Claudio Monteverdi's opera, Proserpina rapita, was performed there), the Bernardo, the Nani. The palace thus took on the successive names of its owners.

In 1822, at the end of the Republic, it was partially purchased (the first floor) by Giuseppe Da Niel, known as Danieli, who turned it into a hotel, the Albergo reale. In 1840 his daughter Alfonsina Muzzarelli acquired the entire property, which she in turn passed on to her daughter, Giuseppina Roux. The Albergo reale later became the Royal Danieli, and finally simply 'Hotel Danieli'. Almost immediately it became a mythical hotel, welcoming the most famous personalities of the time[ref. needed]. Due to its success, a second building was built in the 19th century and then a third one in the 20th century, connected to the original hotel. The entrance was through the Gothic door in Calle delle Razze; the present entrance was later opened on the Schiavoni quay.

The staircase inside the Daneli Hotel.
The staircase inside the Daneli Hotel. [CC] credit.

The Danieli has welcomed illustrious guests such as Goethe, Wagner, George Sand and Alfred de Musset, Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, Émile Zola, painters who have left views of it, musicians, and it has been used as a setting for both literary works and films (Eva, by Joseph Losey; Le Guignolo, by Georges Lautner; Sait-on jamais... by Roger Vadim).

The Danieli now belongs to the Marriott hotel chain.