Sightseeing on the Grand Canal Quiz

Answer: Outbreak of plague

While plague outbreaks occurred pretty regularly in a city which hosted a great deal of international trade, this one was particularly virulent, with nearly a third of the city's population dying. It was decided to pledge the construction of a new church if the plague were to be eased, and construction began in 1631.

Another decree was that the Senate would visit the church annually. This tradition is still observed - on 21 November the city's officials participate in the Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin.

The procession starts in St Mark's Square, and proceeds to the church, crossing the Grand Canal on a temporary pontoon bridge constructed for the event. The church was designed by architect Baldassare Longhena, and was completed in 1894, shortly before the architect's death.

The exterior is striking, and a familiar feature of the skyline of Venice, and the interior artwork is at least as impressive, featuring a number of works by Titian.

Answer: Modern art

Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979) was one of THOSE Guggenheims, and the foundation established by her uncle Solomon Guggenheim took over management of her collection after her death. Starting in 1938, she managed a series of galleries where she displayed contemporary artworks, and often purchased pieces for her own collection.

By the end of World War II, she had an impressive collection, concentrating on Surrealism, Cubism and Abstract Expressionism from European and American artists. The Palazzo now holds both her collection and other significant works on loan from around the world, and the grounds serve as a sculpture garden.

As the vaporetto passes, you can see 'The Angel of the City', one of a series of stylized horse-and-rider statues created by Marino Marini (1901-1980).

Answer: Their old one had burned down

While there may have been family conflicts, the reason for the new palazzo was that the old one had been destroyed by fire in 1532. The Cornaro family played a significant role in Venetian affairs, having been one of the founding families of the Great Council in 1172.

The family had eight different palaces on the Grand Canal, including Palazzo Corner della Ca' Grande, which is often just called Ca' Corner. This is a Venetian term that translates to Corner House (and Ca' Grande means Big House). If you're an architecture student, you will note that this is an excellent example of High Renaissance architecture.

The symmetry and stately proportions of the windows with rounded arches at the front of the porch framing them, the rows of Ionic (on the middle floor) and Corinthian (on the top floor) columns, and the regular patterns used for balcony supports and lintels are only a few of the obvious features.

Answer: Wood

A bridge near the southern end of the canal was first suggested near the end of the 15th century, along with a companion bridge near the Palazzo Santa Sofia, to facilitate pedestrians wishing to cross the canal, but the proposal never got off the ground.

A small steel bridge was built in the 19th century, but it was replaced in 1933 by a 'temporary' larger wood bridge which is still there in the 21st century, albeit with some additional steel reinforcement. The bridge gets its name from its location, with one end outside the former Monastery of Santa Maria della Carita, which housed the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia (a tertiary school for the study of art) between 1807 and 2004.

The Galerie dell-Accademia, originally associated with the art academy but an independent art gallery and museum since 1879, is still in the building.

Answer: Rialto Bridge

Connecting the sestieri (the term used for the six administrative districts of the city) of San Marco and San Polo, the Rialto Bridge is the latest of a series built in that spot - always a busy spot where many people want to cross the canal, since the Rialto has been the commercial and financial centre of the city for most of its existence.

The first recorded bridge was built on pontoons in 1181. It soon proved inadequate for the traffic, and was replaced by a wooden bridge in 1255. This bridge had two sloping ramps extending from each bank up to a flat area at the central peak, which could be raised to allow tall ships to pass through. Wood proved to be vulnerable - the bridge had multiple fires, and was almost completely destroyed in 1310.

The bridges also weren't strong enough to support everyone when people crowded on there - it collapsed in 1444 and again in 1524. The modern stone bridge, designed by Antonio de Ponte, was built between 1588 and 1591, with a shape very similar to that of the wooden bridge it replaced, including the presence of shops along the ramps.

Answer: Business premises and housing for foreign merchants

There were several Fondaco built near the Rialto, and named after the nationality of the merchants housed in each (although the term German used for this one was very loosely used to apply to Germanic and Slavic people from such areas as what we now call Poland, Czechia and Hungary).

The ground floor was used for storage and sale of goods, the upper floors were where they had offices and living quarters. The buildings are sometimes referred to as ghettoes, because the merchants were not allowed outside the premises (unless escorted by a Venetian official).

This allowed close monitoring of their business transactions, on which hefty taxes were levied. Clearly this was a profitable arrangement for both parties - when Fondaco dei Tedeschi was destroyed by fire in 1505, the Venetian government paid to have it rebuilt into the building we see today, although the interior has been changed to suit the contemporary use of the space.

Answer: Decorative gold paint

Originally built in 1430 for the Contarini family, an influential family who produced eight doges, this building is considered one of the finest remaining examples of Venetian Gothic architecture. The incorrect options all describe some of the features you will see, but the original gold paint on the filigree work, and dramatic displays of other colors to make architectural details stand out have disappeared.

Some consider that the color actually detracted from one's ability to appreciate the beauty of the lines which the structure now displays clearly.

After the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797, the house went through a number of private owners before it was bequeathed to the Italian State in 1916 by its last owner, Giorgio Franchetti, who had made extensive restorations while he owned it. Now Ca' d'Oro houses an art gallery, named after him, many of whose contents were from Franchetti's personal collection.

Answer: Richard Wagner

The other three were well known Venetian composers of opera, but it was Richard Wagner, on his sixth visit to the city, who had a fatal heart attack on 13 February 1883. He had arrived in September 1882, and rented out the mezzanine floor for his entourage.

In 1995 the Associazione Richard Wagner di Venezia opened the Museo Wagner, which holds the private Wagner collection of Josef Leinhart in the rooms he had used on his final visit. It includes letters, manuscripts, paintings, family heirlooms, and more - it is described as the largest collection of Wagner material outside of Bayreuth.

The museum is not open every day, so you need to plan your visit after checking its current opening times.

Answer: A museum of natural history

This building has served a number of purposes over the last thousand years. It started as a small residence, then was expanded into a larger palazzo in the middle of the 13th century, then was purchased by the state for the use of the Dukes of Ferrara in the 14th and 15th centuries. During the 17th and 18th centuries it was headquarters for merchants from the Ottoman Empire (hence the name Turkish Ghetto), who stayed on until 1838 even though Napoleon Bonaparte had abolished the Venetian Republic in 1797.

They left it pretty much in ruins, so the city reclaimed the building, and attempted to restore it to its 13th century style, with some additions such as the towers on each end. Since then, it has housed several museums, the latest of which is the Museo di Storia Naturale di Venezia, where you can learn about the flora and fauna of the Venetian lagoon.

Answer: Barefoot

In earlier times, the name was translated as Church of the Discalced, but the more contemporary English word is Barefoot. It refers to a religious group whose members go barefoot (or sometimes who wear sandals). By the time the bridge was built in the early 1930s, the Carmelites who were responsible for the nickname given to the Church of Santa Maria de Nazareth had gone, but the church's nickname lives on.

This stone arch bridge replaced an older iron bridge built in the middle of the 19th century to provide access to the railway station.

The newest bridge is slightly closer to the west end of the Grand Canal than the Ponte degli Scalzi.