Fondaco dei Turchi - Santa Croce - Buildings and Monuments

This building was originally built at the beginning of the 13th century by Giacomo Palmieri, the consul of Pesaro on the Atlantic coast, who fled to Venice where he founded one of the greatest noble families in the city: the Pesaro family. In 1621, the Pesaro family rented the palace to Ottoman merchants and from then on the palace was known as the Fondaco dei Turchi (the Turks’ Warehouse). Later, when trade with the East began to decline, the palace was abandoned by the Ottomans and fell into ruin. In 1880, the Venice City Council bought the Fondaco and renovated it , whilst maintaining the characteristics of the original buildings, i.e. its Venetian-Byzantine façade covered in marble. This building has been the home of the Natural History Museum in Venice since 1924.