Giardini Napoleonici, Venice

Giardini Napoleonici is a public park whose most distinctive feature is its role as a setting for the Venice Biennale. Napoleon ordered marshland here to be transformed into public gardens in 1807, and Giannantonio Selva directed their design. The work continued from 1808 to 1812, and the gardens opened to the public on the 20th of August 1810.

As you move along the paths, the park combines vegetation with exhibition buildings devoted to different nations. The Biennale area contains 30 permanent pavilions, while the gardens also include a separate public section. Several pavilions were created by important modern architects: the Finnish building is by Alvar Aalto, the Austrian pavilion by Josef Hoffmann, and the Dutch pavilion by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld.

Carlo Scarpa designed the ticket office and also created the sculpture garden inside the Central Pavilion. Look for the monument to Giuseppe Garibaldi near the entrance, made by Augusto Benvenuti in 1885. Other monuments commemorate figures including Richard Wagner, Giosuè Carducci, and Riccardo Selvatico, the mayor who promoted the Biennale. The park is also known for the cats that roam freely among its paths, giving this major art venue a distinctly informal life.