The Dungeons of the Doge
The traveler who while in Venice admires the magnificent façade of the Doge’s Palace and its eclectic mishmash of Western and Eastern styles is usually unaware that inside this very building, just a few steps away from its stunning gold-gilded halls there is the most dreaded facility of the Serenissima: its prisons. Today they are open to the public and are a landmark not to be missed.
Il Ponte dei Sospiri - The Bridge of Sighs
The Doge’s Palace was not only the seat of the administration of the Republic and its various branches, it was also the place where all the judiciary proceedings, civil and criminal were held. If the suspect in question was condemned to serve a term in prison, he would be whisked away from the courtroom and taken to his cell in a matter of minutes.
Justice in the Republic of Venice accepted – and actually encouraged - anonymous denunciations. In the Doge’s Palace the visitor can still see the intimidating marble slit in one of the walls of the inner courtyard where citizens were invited to place their accusations. An anonymous handwritten note was often more than enough to arrest the suspect, and for centuries the use of torture to extract a confession or an admission of guilt was considered normal, legal and a perfectly acceptable practice.
Citizens condemned for minor crimes or misdemeanors would usually not end up in the prisons of the Palace of the Doge. For these people Venice had other prisons, where living conditions were undoubtedly harsh by modern standards, but relatively acceptable. Only citizens convicted of grave crimes would be locked in the dungeons of the Palazzo Ducale.
The prisons of the palace were divided into three radically different sections: the Pozzi (the Wells) the Piombi (the Leads) and the Carcere Nuovo (the New Prison). The wells were undoubtedly the most dreaded part of the prisons. They were reserved for citizens of lower social status or for those condemned for extremely serious crimes. Conditions were so appalling that often an inmate would die after a few months in the Pozzi. The cells were small, often filthy; and since they were located in the lowest two floors of the palace they could become unbearably cold and humid in the winter and horribly hot in the summer. The cells were located in the central part of the floor, and all around them was a corridor where the guards would surveille the prisoners and provide them with meager food rations through small grated windows.
The Piombi were very different. They were located in an upper floor of the palace, directly under its roof made of lead sheets. There were only six cells in the Piombi, and detention in this section of the prisons was normally reserved for those convicted of minor crimes and offenses, or if the prisoner belonged to the upper echelons of Venetian society. The prisoner had the possibility of having goods delivered from the outside, mainly furnishings and quality food and drink. He could also count on regular contact with a caretaker, and in case of emergency on quick medical assistance at the prison infirmary.
In 1563 Antonio da Ponte, who would later design the Rialto Bridge, built the “New Prisons” in order to deal with the growing number of inmates and to ensure better living conditions. The new inmates arrived at the New Prisons through the so-called Ponte dei sospiri (the Bridge of Sighs), an enclosed bridge built over a canal separating the Doge’s Palace from the new building. Although the conditions of the prisoners could differ, security was very tight in every part of the prisons, and an escape was considered to be impossible.
Giacomo Casanova escaping
Enter Giacomo Casanova. In 1755, the notorious Venetian lothario was accused and found guilty of several crimes: fraud, slander, witchcraft, libertinism, and being a Freemason. During his imprisonment in the Piombi, he would later write in his autobiography, “My only pleasure […] was to graze on chimerical plans to recover the freedom without which I no longer wanted to live. All I did was to think about escape because I was convinced that I could only do it by thinking about it."
Il Palazzo Ducale/The Palace of the Doge
After several failed attempts he eventually managed to dig, over the course of several weeks, a small hole in the ceiling of his cell. After reaching the roof he re-entered the palace from a window and walked straight to the main gate. Incredibly, he managed to convince the gatekeeper that he was an unfortunate visitor who had remained locked up overnight by mistake. The guard opened the gates and Casanova quickly vanished into the Venetian night, a free man again.
