Ca’ Foscari seems made to be seen from the water. It stands on the great bend of the Grand Canal, where the palace of the doge Francesco Foscari could impose itself on those arriving in the city. The Casa delle Due Torri (House of the Two Towers) once stood here: the Republic bought it in 1429 and, in 1453, Foscari turned it into his own residence, demolishing the earlier building to construct a new, tall and luminous palace.