The dark, 16th-century facade of Palazzo Cappello closes off the far end of the rio (a Venetian canal) di San Lorenzo, a couple of steps from campo Santa Maria Formosa. It was one of the most sumptuous patrician houses in the city, rebuilt at the end of the 15th century by Vincenzo Cappello, the great capitano generale da mar (captain-general of the sea) of the Serenissima.