Royal Gardens of Venice Site Features

The coffee pavilion

Lorenzo Santi's neoclassical padiglione of the 1810s sits at the garden's eastern end and works again as a cafe. It is the only place within sight of the Bacino where a table is not charging Piazza San Marco prices for the view.

The greenhouse

A glass-and-iron serra rebuilt on its historic footprint beside the Zecca bridge during the 2014-2020 restoration. Empress Elisabeth of Austria is said to have taken her coffee in its predecessor during her long stays in the 1850s and 60s.

The drawbridge to the Piazza

A bridge over the Rio della Zecca connects the gardens directly to the Procuratie -- the original physical link between the royal palace and its garden. It is still lowered for special occasions.

What the garden replaced

The site held the Granai di Terranova, a Gothic grain warehouse of 1340 that stood for more than four centuries until Napoleon had it demolished to make the garden. A large medieval public building was removed to create the shade the square now lacks.