This Historic Building in Venice Hasn’t Been Open to the Public in 500 Years—Now You Can Visit

One of Venice’s most historical buildings is getting a new lease on life as a modern arts center. The second floor of the Procuratie Vecchie, a building running along one side of St. Mark’s Square, is now open to the public for the first time in 500 years in its new form as the San Marco Arts Centre (SMAC).

Venice is already a hub for contemporary art with its international biennale, but SMAC aims to do something that doesn’t exist in the city’s arts landscape: be a kunsthalle, a space that mounts regular temporary exhibitions but isn’t constrained by a specific curatorial focus or theme. “We want to be flexible, dynamic and reactive to what’s happening in the world,” co-founder David Gramazio told Travel + Leisure. That’s why SMAC isn’t limiting itself to modern art, but will also exhibit architecture, fashion, photography, and film.

It’s kicking off its program at the same time as this year’s Architecture Biennale with two architecture-themed solo shows, one a retrospective of the Austrian-Australian architect Harry Seidler—dubbed “the high priest of modernism”—and the other the first international exhibition of the pioneering landscape architect Jung Youngsun, known for being the first Korean woman to earn the title of land development engineer.

The Procuratie were originally built as residences for the Venetian Republic’s public prosecutors in the first half of the 16th century. The building ended up primarily being used as offices by the Italian insurance group Generali, before the company launched a massive restoration project with Pritzker Prize-winning architect David Chipperfield. The third floor opened to the public in 2022 and is occupied by the company’s foundation, The Human Safety Net. 

The extensive redesign of the space preserves the building’s Venetian touches such as Napoleon-era frescoes and Venetian terrazzo floors, while making it suitable for exhibiting art, with state-of-the-art temperature and humidity control in every room. The 16-gallery, 10,793-square-foot space lines the square’s northern side, laid out along a light-filled corridor. From the windows, visitors have a panoramic view of the iconic piazza, with St. Mark’s bell tower and basilica on one side and the ornate arcades of the Procuratie Nuove opposite, mirroring the Procuratie Vecchie.

SMAC’s opening is a sign of Venice’s gradual transformation into a year-round arts capital—one that isn’t just dependent on the Biennale sweeping in.